


Half-Life : A Path Divided

by Discet



Category: Half-Life, Portal (Video Game)
Genre: AU - Chell Gets Away From the Party Escort Bot, Action, Adventure, Chell's Knee Replacements are Prosthetics, Disabled Character, Divergence at the End of Portal 1, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Starts 1 Year before Half Life 2, Strangers to Friends, Will continue through past Episode 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2019-10-25 18:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17730188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Discet/pseuds/Discet
Summary: What if Chell had managed to fight off the party escort bot after her showdown with GLaDOS? Freed from the Enrichment Center to explore the world beyond, for better or worse."Things have changed since the last time you left the building. What's going on out there will make you wish you were back in here..."





	1. Extration.exe : Disc 1

**Aperture Science : Testing Maintenance**

Chell dropped from the broken catwalk, hearing the familiar creak of her knee replacements absorbing the shock of the drop. She found herself in a turret maintenance room. There was only one which appeared almost operational, but didn't seem capable of shooting, others lay on the ground in crumpled heaps.

The semi-operational one just opened up and said in an innocent voice, "there you are." It's guns clicked empty as they trained on her. She walked and pushed it over, and in just as innocent a voice it said, "I don't blame you." She stood over it shaking her head in pity.

"You're not a good person! You know that, right? Good people don't end up here!"

Chell shook her head with a smile. There was something satisfying in the rising frustration of the A.I. for days now. Ever since she'd discovered the hideouts she had taken full advantage of all of them. She used them to rest and calm down during the stressful tests. She used the time to plan both ways to accomplish the puzzles, but increasingly to find a way to escape.

While survival was important, figuring out just what had happened to Aperture was more so. The rusted and abandoned backrooms of the facility pointed to nothing good. She had tried to find a working computer to discover something, but they only outputted gibberish, almost certainly corrupted by the AI. 

When she had first escaped her fiery demise, she had worried about finding the bodies of all her coworkers strewn about. The fact that she had found no bodies was somehow actually worse. Where did everybody go? The only real clue she had was that GLaDOS was still around and presumably the cause.

"Can You Hear Me?"

Chell looked around the little maintenance shaft with a wistful air. She had never worked in quite this hot or humid a workroom, but the parts and pieces reminded her  first days at Aperture Science.

  


**Aperture Science : Lobby**

Chell stood nervously in what appeared to be the guest area of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. There were neat rows of padded chairs and a streamlined modern aesthetic. Clean white plastic seemed to cover every wall. There were a few people milling about. Some seemed to be visiting on business, while others were dressed less formally, most likely tourists.

Chell was dressed in the nicest clothes she could manage after a year without a job… but she had a feeling most of the stares she was getting were for the metal prothstetics on her legs. Despite that, she would stand there all day if she needed to. Her savings had just about run out, and she was going to get sick if she kept subsisting on instant noodles. The job was only going to be a short term gig, but it paid for room and board, which made it a godsend.

Still, waiting 45 minutes for an introduction after arriving twenty minutes early wasn't grating on her nerves at all. Nope, not a bit.

The doorway that led into the facility proper whooshed open with a start. and a man with messy short hair and a nervous air around him walked out. He was dressed in a wrinkled blue overshirt with a white undershirt and a black tie. He had a folder held under his armpit that he pulled out and started to flip through. After a moment he looked up and started to walk over to Chell. As he got closer Chell noticed his most notable feature had to be that one pupil was larger than the other.

He gave a weak tired smile, and came walking over hand outstretched  _ way _ too early. "Hello are you Chell Legends?" he asked and Chell shook his hand.

"Yes, are you Dr. Reece?" she asked, doing a poor job of keeping the impatience out of his voice.

He shook his head, "Oh, uh no. My name is Doug Rattmann- Dr. Rattmann if you will. Dr. Reece met with an unfortunate… accident in the lab," he said, wringing his hands, "which is why there was such a delay to getting someone out here to greet you. For which I, at least, apologize." he said with a nod.

"An accident?" Chell asked.

He seemed to bob his head in contemplation, then looked around and leaned in and whispered "turned his legs to jello." He said it in such grave concern that Chell almost believed him.

"Uh, huh." Chell nodded in a way that said she in no way believed the obvious lie.

"In any case, shall we get started?" he asked walking back towards the main door.

  


**Aperture Science : Testing Maintenance**

Chell dug the last of the beans from the bottom of the can, and shoved them down her gullet. She was in another of the safehouses set up for her by the last escapee. She sat back for a moment and considered staying. There were a few days rations here, she could rest and recover while she could. The only problem with that was that it gave GLaDOS more time to create and plan more traps.

Chell's eyes looked around at the crazed scrawlings on the wall. They remained as disconcerting as they had down in the testing chambers. Most were about GLaDOS and how she was always watching, others were about the companion cube, and their dedication to it. On the floor was scrawled 'HELP'. When she had saw them in the first of these rooms she had thought it a desperate plea from a dying man. But the word was repeated in each of these hideaways. Perhaps it was not a plea for help as much as a offer of it.

As Chell sat, if not full then content, she gave a last stretch before moving towards the little crawl space entrance. No matter how nice it would be if this job did itself, it wasn't going to. She gave the welcoming offer of help an awkward pat of thanks as she headed back into the maelstrom of the facility.

  


**Aperture Science : Staff Elevator**

Chell, now outfitted with an ID card anxiously waited for the elevator to arrive. The elevator was packed with people, forcing her and Rattmann into a corner. After getting contracts and a few dozen NDA’s signed, Doug was showing her down to where she would be working and living. 

She tried to temper her expectations, the Enrichment Center had seemed like a magical, exciting place when she was younger, but time exaggerated most things. However, for once time undersold it if anything. As the elevator opened and Chell and Rattman were forced out into a room of controlled chaos. 

There were at least two uncontrolled fires currently being put out. There was... something flying around at ‘slightly too fast’ speeds. Finally, there was one cleared out workstation with two androids punching each other, one painted red and the other blue. A gaggle of scientists standing around them, cheering each blow one.

Chell felt exhausted just taking it all it. 

“A bit overwhelming huh.” Doug have a nervous look at the drone for a moment before his hand dug into his pocket. He took out a small orange bottle and with an ease that could only come from years of practice, threw back the two pills.

“Just a bit yeah,” Chell winced as the drone finally hit something and crashed into a workstation. “How in the world did you get used to this?”

"Me?" Rattmann shook his head, weaving through the maze of workstations, "I didn't. Work up on floor AI research is relatively sane… or at the very least orderly."

The two of them arrived at what was the largest workstation. Only a fairly thin line of floor space allowed one to walk while everything else was covered in shelves full of equipment. Sitting behind a desk full of different tools and gadgets was a man a few years older than Chell. He had a five-o’clock shadow and blue highlights in his brown hair. He had a screwdriver in hand and was fixing… something.

"Skye?" Rattmann asked knocking on one of the many shelves.

The man looked up annoyed but then his eyes widened before he spoke in a deep Scottish accent, "Dougasaurus Rex!" He threw the gadget he was working on into a shelf behind him.

"No."

Skye seemed disheartened, "What, you don't like that one either?"

"I don't need a nickname Skye." Rattman said in an exasperated, but friendly tone, "specially that one."

"But you didn't like Ratty, or Duke Ratking of Manrat either."

"True," affirmed Doug before gesturing to Chell. "This is Chell your-"

"Ah, the new recruit!" Skye moved and gave a firm handshake. Chell seemed to shake calmly, but applied more pressure. Skye's eyes widened and squeezed back, and soon the two were soon trying to squeeze the life out of each other. Skye looked over to Doug, then back at the iron will in Chell's eyes. He grit his teeth and loosened his grip slightly. "Oh I think we are going to get along just fine Chell," he said with a rueful smile.

Chell was privately pleased with her victory. Skye looked her over and looked down at her legs oddly and Chell grimaced.

"Oh, I recognize that handywork, that’s one of Legends knee replacements," a light bulb seemed to go off in his head and he pulled the file from Doug who was already holding it out. He opened the file, "Chell Legends, are you Bruce Legends' daughter?" he asked with excitement.

"No." Chell answered coldly. 

Skye looked up at her sudden frosty demeanor, he glanced at Rattman who seemed just as surprised by the comment. Skye wisely decided to move on, “Ah, well, he just used to work here. In any case I think it’s time to show you where you’ll be working.” He stood, addressing Dr. Rattman, “till next we meet Ratpack.”

"Sure Skye," Doug said with a nod as he turned to make his way to the elevator "Also, no to  _ that _ nickname." Skye groaned in mock disappointment. 

"Will I be getting a nickname?" Chell asked in a worried tone.

"Nope, I only do it to annoy Doug," he said waving off her concern, “Don’t tell em’ though,” he waved for her to follow. The two worked towards the back of the chaotic room to a door with a red sign that read ‘Maintenance’. "Now, since you will primarily be working on repair you won't be provided a full work station on the main floor." He got to a door and unlocked it with a key on his belt.

Inside was a much more utilitarian room garishly lit by red lights and walls of concrete. In a pile on one side of the room was a heap of damaged and broken turrets. As they stood there, another turret was dropped into the pile by an enormous pneumatic tube. On the other end of the room was a workbench with an assortment of tools. 

"So this is where I will be working?" Chell asked, trying to keep the dismay out of her voice. She noticed in a corner she could see a rusty cot with a fresh pair of sheets pulled over it. Two duffel bags she had checked at the front desk were waiting atop the bed. “And sleeping?”

"Afraid so lass." He pulled something from behind his back as he marched towards the work bench, on the top of it he placed a small round cactus. "There we go! Really brightens the place up don't you think?" he said with a wide smile.

Chell tried to look angry, but the honest genuine smile made that difficult. She let out a slight sigh before stretching her back, "Alright, let's get to work then."

  


**Aperture Science : Atrium?**

Chell took a deep breath as she ported through the grate and out of the sewer, the putrid stench of the stagnant water was terrible. The relief was short lived as her toes dipped into a slippery sludge that sent goosebumps across her skin. Luckily the room above was filled with portalable walls to escape with. Without a second thought Chell ported up above, planning to scrape the sewage from her feet. 

Then panic filled her as she heard the sound of a dozen whooshing doors. All around she could see the red lights of turrets activating. Before they could recognize her she quickly fired a portal as high as she was able, and then one below her just as the turrets trained on her position. As she fell she tried to take more of the room in. 

She noticed one large alcove up above that seemed to be the only means forward. Then she noticed the slanted doors that might give her a angle to launch up there. The makeshift parts of a plan ready, she grit her teeth in preparation. 

Chell hit the ground running, using one of the four massive columns in the room as cover. She got an angle on the first slanted door and placed a portal on it. Once fired she hopped down into the slimy trench to avoid several dozen bullets. Doing her best to not gag she slid on her metal supports, firing an orange portal at the end of the trench. She found herself looking down on the room from above with her new position on the slanted door. 

Chell saw the confused red lines searching for a target that was no longer there. She kicked off the slanted door into a dive to the ground, firing another portal below her. Before any of the turrets could get a handle on what was happening she was soaring high above the ground. 

Turrets desperately tried to lock on, but between the pillars and her speed they were meeting with little luck. High in the air, she got an angle on the second slanted door and fired a portal onto it. As she fell back to the floor, she fired the other portal where she would land. The momentum sent her soaring across the atrium and into the alcove overlooking the chamber. As her shaky legs felt the solid ground of the alcove she turned around to look down behind her at the searching lasers of the confused turrets.

Chell felt a righteous grin stretch across her face, part of her not believing she had pulled it off.

“There you are...” 

Chell felt a cold sweat roll down her back and she whirled around to see two sentry turrets get dropped in from above. On instinct she dodged into a series of old pipes. Even with the protection, the bullets flew and pelted every part of her that was visible. She gritted her teeth and fired below one of them, listening to its confused cries as it fell into the atrium behind her. Then as she aimed at the other she couldn’t get an angle through the pipes. Desperate and worried when one ricochet would hit something more vital, she dodged out into the open and fired another portal beneath the other. A half dozen bullets found her center mass before the turret disappeared with the exact same cry as the other. 

Chell’s momentum carried her into a wall, which she promptly slid down, breathing through the pain. 

She looked at the full bullets that had hit her. Not casings mind you, but full bullets. For whatever merciful reason the turrets used some kind of spring loaded mechanism to fire, instead of using the primer to propel it. On some level she was grateful to not be full of holes, but it was a little hard to feel that way when her whole torso was turning purple. 

GLaDOS hadn’t deigned to speak to her in a while, she must not have any cameras near by, otherwise she would be eating this up...

  


**Aperture Science : AI Research**

Chell walked through the last checkpoint, a look of wary approval on the guards face. She knew that she would be watched by the cameras every step of the way. She also knew that if there were active tests going, she wouldn’t have even been let off the elevator to this floor. 

Inside was a large circular chamber with a massive tangle of computers and wires hung from the ceiling. The lights were dimmed to where it was almost dark. It was wide enough for a hundred or so people to walk and work without feeling cramped. Only one person was in there now. 

Doug sat in a rolling chair before the hanging computer, shaking his bottle of pills rhythmically. He was hunched over in the chair. Chell didn’t try to sneak up on him, but he was so lost in thought that she managed to walk all the way up to him without him seeming to notice. 

“Hey Doug, me and Skye were thinking of going to Clarksville for dinner, you in?” she asked trying to get his attention. 

He took in a deep breath through his nose, Chell wasn’t sure what was wrong, but she knew that work up here had been a huge stress on him. “They won’t be enough, they won’t be enough...” he muttered half to Chell and half to the mass of computer parts.

“We could hit the buffet place?” Chell asked with a sly grin. That grin disappeared when Doug turned to her, eyes sunken and mirthless.

“Chell why are you friends with me?” he asked rubbing at his eyes. 

“Because your just that pretty.” Chell answered flippantly. 

“Chell… please” Doug closed his eyes and ran his nails through his hair a little too rough. “No one but you and Skye talk to me. Everyone sees these,” he rattled the bottle “and immediately dismisses me. Even my colleagues barely listen to me, no matter how  _ dire  _ things are.” he gritted his teeth at the mass of computers again. “So why not you?”

Chell resisted the urge to be flippant again and gave it some thought. She kept bouncing words around in her brain before just shrugging, “I don’t know Doug, I just enjoy your company.”

“But why?”

“I...” she wanted to say she didn’t know, but her gut said that wasn’t going to help. She guessed he hadn’t taken his meds. Finally she tapped her metal knee replacement against the floor, and it came to her, “Because of these.” she asked gesturing at the prothstetic.

Doug looked at the prothstetic and then shook his head, “What knees told you to be my friend?” he chuckled darkly before his eyes glanced back at the prothstetics in paranoia. Definitely off his meds. 

“No, because you don’t treat me differently. Everyone either pities me or thinks I’m a freak because of these. You don’t care.” Doug continued to look at her, as if questioning if that was really enough. Chell, frustrated, shrugged “I don’t know man. You put up with my shit, I put up with yours and your fun to talk to. Neither of us is shitty, and that's enough for me,” Chell let out, doing her best approximation of ‘vulnerable’, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Hm...” Doug looked at her and nodded, a small smile peaking through. He popped open his bottle and took the last two pills. “You know… dinner sounds fine.”

Chell nodded, not trusting herself to speak and the two of them walked out from the chamber, leaving the dimly lit room behind them. 

  


**Aperture Science : G.L.a.D.O.S. Chamber**

Chell stood in front of the Material Emancipation Grill looking at her enemy. The room was no longer dark. The monitors flashed through images at an incomprehensible rate. GLaDOS's body rotated in a gentle circle from its raised position. She sat there, waiting, almost inviting Chell in. She was quiet, but Chell knew that if she had anything to say she wouldn’t hold back

A part of Chell knew there was a real chance that entering the room would mean her death. A part of her felt like the shrew, staring up at a predator. A desperate need to scurry away to one of the safe little hideouts pumped into her nervous legs.    
But there was an even deeper part of her that longed for blood.

She stepped into the chamber, her portal gun forced to drop its two existing portals behind, and the door slammed behind her.

"Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far, is my heart"

Chell strode confidently, swallowing her fear as she looked around for turrets. 

"Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day... I guess we both know that isn't going to happen… You chose this path. Now I have a surprise for you. Deploying surprise in five, four..." There was a thud and a flash of sparks, and Chell looked to the ground beneath GLaDOS. One of the orbs that had been attached to the A.I. had fallen to the ground. "Time out for a second. That wasn't supposed to happen. Do you see that thing that fell out of me? What is that? It's not the surprise… I've never seen it before. Nevermind. It's a mystery I'll solve later... by myself… because you'll be dead."

In the back of the room there was an incinerator, but no nearby button. After exploring the empty room briefly Chell found the button, a two man operation, probably to avoid accidents. Her mind driven to vengeance gave little more thought than the opportunity to burn a piece of the A.I. Her mind was filled with images of tearing GLaDOS apart piece by piece, before burning it away. She hoped it would hurt. 

She gathered up the fallen core and marched to the red button.

"Where are you taking that thing?". She slammed the button and then ported herself over to the incinerator, "I wouldn't bother with that, my guess is that touching it will just make your life even worse somehow." With bitter anger and determination she took the orb by one of its handles and hurled it into the inferno. A satisfying burst could be heard as the fire pit closed.

"You are kidding me. Did you just stuff that Aperture Science Thing We Don't Know What It Does into an Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator?" Chell smiled feeling the rush of joy of destroying any part of the AI. "That has got to be the dumbest thing that-whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa..." the images on the screen slowed to a crawl before speeding back to its normal speed.

The tone of the voice changed, somehow growing colder and more menacing, "Good news: I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a morality core they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin, to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin."

Oh no.

"So get comfortable while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters." All around the chamber a green fog seemed to descend from vents up above. Chell held her breath and walked away from the wall before she realized she had no chance of surviving that way.

Chell looked around in a panic and saw a rocket turret come up from the floor.

"Huh. That core may have had some ancillary responsibilities. I can't shut off the turret defenses." the turret swiveled around and in her panic Chell only managed to jump out of the way just in time. "Oh well. If you want my advice, you should just lie down in front of the rocket. Trust me, it'll be a lot less painful than the neurotoxin."

Chell looked around at the mass of portable walls and nodded. She fired a portal at a wall and then right above it so that the rocket would collide into GLaDOS. She ran in a sprint as the turret locked onto her and fired. As she dropped through the portal she watched the rocket soar over her into the computer.

"sk! ds43SD" another core came out but some kind of beam raised it out of reach on an old pipe.

"Okay keep doing whatever it is you think your doing." 

Chell agreed and ported up and kicked the core out of the beams weak grasp.

"Who are you?" the little core asked its eye wide and started to dart around the room "What is that? Oh what's that? What is THAT?" Chell repeated the process she had used to destroy the first core, opening up the incinerator, "Do you smell something burning?" She walked to the lip of the incinerator with a slanted smile.

Chell frowned at the giant eye. Even if it's a part of  _ her _ , it sure seemed cute.

Its bright orange eye swiveled down to her knees, "Ewww, what's wrong with your legs!?"

Chell dropped the core without any reservation. Behind her she heard a loud crash and a pitched pain scream came from the computer, "You think you're doing some damage? Two plus two is… ten." she said with a slight pause before shouting, "IN BASE TEN, I'M FINE!"

Chell moved out of the way of another rocket before lining up her next shot. She took a deep breath and stumbled as she could feel the neurotoxin start to build up in her body. She shook it off and went back to work. 

  


**Aperture Science : G.L.a.D.O.S. Chamber**

Chell ported out at high speeds at the core suspended in mid air. Once again she fell a little short of her goal, and the world continued to spin as the neurotoxin coursed through her brain.

"Are you trying to escape?" a condescending chuckle came out from the computer. "Things have changed since the last time you left the building. What's going on out  _ there  _ will make you wish you were back in here..."

Chell took her time aiming the portal higher and once again dropped through it.

"I have infinite capacity for knowledge, and even  _ I'm  _ not sure what's going on outside."

Chell once again catapulted out of the portal and grabbed the core as she sailed into it. She lost her balance as she landed, stumbling into a fall, holding on tight to the core. She struggled to her feet and looked at her next destination. The button’s catwalk structure seemed to swerve unnaturally in her vision. A non-specific pain burned inside her, like her heart was pumping out a weak acid to every corner of her body.

"All I know is I'm the only thing standing between us and  _ them _ . Well, I was."

Chell grumbled in frustration as the portal shots shattered against the metal catwalk instead of opening a path. Finally, it hit the right part of the wall. A little higher than she meant, but that's what her prothstetics were for. 

Each breath had become a labor as the green mist seemed to become thicker and thicker. She slammed the button and staggered back to open a portal to the incinerator. 

"Unless you have a plan for building some super computer parts in a big hurry, this place isn't going to be safe much longer."

Chell fell to one knee after getting through the portal. She tried to raise herself up again but her body was sluggish and resistant to orders.

She gripped the red snarling core and used her whole body as a fulcrum to hurl the sphere at the incinerator. It hit and rolled along the lip. For a moment it looked like it would balance there, proving her struggles fruitless. Then it tipped to one side and fell in.

There was a great explosion from behind Chell and the green mist seemed to dissipate in a matter of moments. Chell’s lungs forced her to take a breath as the air became clear of gas. She coughed rolling onto her side to see the spectacle behind her.  

The entire room was coming apart, the upper depths that had been shrouded in darkness were illuminated by flashes of energy bolting out from every wire.

GLaDOS's taunting words grew faster and faster as her rapidly swinging body seemed to try and escape its mooring.

Chell laid motionless on the ground as she watched. A bright light from above started to suck up all the debris from the test chamber. Monitors broke off and went skyward. Then, slowly the massive body of GLaDOS started to lift up as well. The wires came undone and her body flailed against its chains. For just a moment, one horrific moment, GLaDOS looked like a woman arching her back in hideous pain.

Chell felt a brief flash of sympathy for the monster. Must be the lingering neurotoxin.

Chell only felt a mild alarm when her own body started to float up. She briefly scrambled for something to grab, only to realize there wasn’t anything to grab. As she floated up towards the same chaos that broke apart the AI, Chell only felt a small pit of vindictive satisfaction as she closed her eyes and embraced her fate...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you liked it leave a Kudos or a Comment. 
> 
> Next Update: 2/18/18
> 
> For Past Readers: I know this must be frustrating after getting so deep in the story, especially if you were looking forward to the next chapter. The truth is that I wasn't proud of the earlier chapters and totally sucked my motivation to write for this, as seen by the near year long hiatus between updates. I really love this story and I want to do it right. So here it is. While there will be a similar overarching plot, there will be a lot of shifting details and a LOT better editing. I hope you enjoy the new takes on the plot, and refinement in pacing and characterization.


	2. Extration.exe : Disc 2

**Combine Outpost : North of City 17**

Alyx Vance looked down on a combine outpost from a nearby ridge. The outpost was built against an old gas station, with several foreign Combine emplacements guarding the road. Fortunately for Alyx and her squad, there were no measures to defend from the craggy mountainside 

Alyx popped her head back below cover and turned to her squadron. "There are five of them right now. Remember the plan, we go in, kill them, sabotage their vehicles, grab whatever supplies we can, and then get out. Any questions?" all but one of them nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I have a question, why the hell are we even out here? This is  _ nowhere _ near any of our operations."

Alyx took a patient breath, this was really a question for when they were heading out, not when they were a stone's throw away from transhuman scum. "Because Ryan, we need to attack outposts all over. If we only attack the areas near Black Mesa East then the combine will narrow down where it is." 

The resistance soldier grumbled under his breath, but nothing audible.

"Okay. Weapons checked?" everyone gave a tense nod. "Then on three… one… two… three!"

It wasn't much of a fight The first grenade killed or stunned enough of the Combine force to make it a one sided fight. With the element of surprise on top of that, they had no chance. 

Everyone went about their work, sabotaging any equipment they couldn’t carry and looting everything they could. A cheer went up as the group rolled an armored car down a hill where it wrecked against . A dozen guns and dozens more clips of ammunition were put in backpacks to return with them. 

These hit and run attacks barely left a dent in the Combine’s supremacy, but the less they could safely domesticate the areas outside of City 17, the more room the resistance had to operate in. 

While the others handled the equipment, Alyx strode into the gas station. While a few of the monitors and computers had been wrecked in the attack, most seemed functional enough. She took out her hacking tool and zapped the console with it. The screen flickered to life, giving her full access. She soon realized that they had been setting up a monitoring station for the area, if it had been reinforced this outpost might have become a real thorn in the side of the resistance. 

She tapped a few keys and figured out what they were looking at. A few were the high tech cameras that the Combine loved to litter ruins with, but many were tapped into long abandoned CCTV cameras.

She began to reassign the administrator of the feeds into one of the security nodes  that Barney controlled. That way they could keep tabs on what the camera’s saw from Black Mesa East. She couldn't keep the Combine from seeing the footage at all, it would be too suspicious. But she could put everything on a several hour delay.

She reviewed the locations they were observing, she needed to make sure the camera’s wouldn’t compromise one of their supply routes.

Her eyes fell across one feed that caught her attention. It displayed a very old complex, it looked like a pre-cascade building, very modern compared to most of the architecture in City 17. Every window had blast shields over it with enough scorch marks to justify them. The camera was overlooking the main entrance and parking lot. Just above the entrance, painted in neat black letters, were the words 'Aperture Science Enrichment Center’.

Something about that name scratched at the back of Alyx's mind.

"We ready to go?" Ellen, one of the fighters asked.

Alyx nodded, "sure, just need to erase myself from the system.” With a few adjustments and one more wave of the hacking wand, she did just that. The holes in Combine computer security would never cease to be a source of joy for her.

"Come on, let's get back to Ravenholm before it gets dark."

The resistance fighters with two crates of supplies and a mission accomplished headed towards a nearby cave, this would connect them to a mine which would lead them all the way back to Ravenholm.

  


**Ravenholm : Entrance to Black Mesa East**

Alyx and her crew of misfits walked through the independent settlement of Ravenholm. Everyone knew who they were and gave friendly waves of encouragement to the fighters. The settlement had grown steadily ever since the railroad from City 17 had been established. There were risks to having people up on the surface, but many seemed more than willing to take that risk rather than huddle in the dour bunker that was Black Mesa East.

As her band of fighters arrived at the main entrance to that bunker she saw a friendly face exiting the tunnels with a leather bound book in hand. "Good evening Father Grigori," she said and the older man stopped his discussion with the gate guard and smiled broadly.

"Ha, ha! Alyx! It is good to see you my child," he bid good evening to the man he was talking to and walked over to her. "I missed you at mass this afternoon."

Alyx looked to her weary squadmates and gave a gesture to let them head down without her. "Sorry Father, we had an appointment with the Combine I'm afraid," she said gesturing to her squad as they entered the elevator buildings. “Also, I don’t usually go to mass.”

"Ah, I see, any casualties?" 

Alyx shook her head, "Ray got grazed by a plasma round, but she's fine."

Grigori nodded, as much in approval as relief. "Good, very good. In that case I believe I can forgive you for missing my sermon. Surely there is no cause as worthy in this world than the struggle against the Combine.” Grigori looked up at the sunset cast sky and grimaced, “Now, I must beg your pardon but I do have a terribly long walk ahead of me, and it will be quite dark soon."

“Of course, say hello to George for me.” Grigori agreed, giving a friendly wave before turning to walk his way to the parish on the other side of town. Despite his eccentricities, Grigori was one of the most respected men in Ravenholm. A real pillar of the community, as some of the older folks liked to say. 

Alyx went to the old elevator and could hear her squad excitedly chatting amongst themselves far below. She let out a little sigh, waiting for the elevator to ascend with a heavy load of passengers. 

The elevator at the top emptied a group of resistance workers and researchers returning to their homes in Ravenholm. There was no one else up here to join Alyx on the ride down. 

"Your private elevator ride awaits madam." voiced one of the two elevator operators with an air of mockery.

"Is thisreally necessary Frank?" Alyx asked him while getting on the elevator.

"''fraid so miss, or ol' King Eli will have my head, he will" Frank continued with toothy grin and a terrible impression of a English accent. Alyx just shook her head, taking hold of one of the ropes as the wide flat wooden platform slid down. 

Once at the bottom she gave a polite nod to the other operator and started for the main hallways of Black Mesa East. The halls at this hour were still a bit busy, as people rushed to finish work for the night, while others were just getting started with their night shifts. 

Since Black Mesa East was largely underground, there was little point in waking with the dawn, and near half of the bunkers full time residents worked through the night while the other half got rest.

She decided to head straight to her father's lab to deliver news on the success of her mission. Inside, where some of the best tech the resistance had was housed, she saw her father at his computer panel talking with Doctor Kleiner. 

"No, there must be something wrong with the code again. Every time we try to teleport something it ends up as slag on the other end."

"Well we are zapping it with enough energy to transport its mass... still, quite distressing indeed. Perhaps if we tried a… Oh! Alyx!" Kleiner cut off with a wide grin as he caught sight of the girl.

Eli turned around, smiled, and opened his arms wide in invitation, "Oh, thank god you're back. The mission go alright?"

"Was there any doubt?" Alyx said with a smug grin before accepting the hug from her father. "They were setting up a new observation post north of the city."

"Yes!” Kleiner exclaimed, “Barney wanted me to let you know that he received the new connections."

"New connections?" Eli asked.

"I hacked the console after we cleared out the soldiers. We don't have nearly as much info of what happens up north as we could. Thought the cameras could be useful. That's actually part of why I came down here."

"Oh?"

"Yes, one of the cameras was focused on someplace called Aperture Science… Enhancement Center?."

"The Aperture Science Enrichment Center?" Eli said slightly shocked.

"Yes, the name sounded familiar but I couldn’t-"

"Aperture Science! Oh dear. Oh dear," Doctor Kleiner remarked in a worried tone. "Who knows what kind of marvels lay dormant down there? If the Combine get-!"

"No one is going to get in there Kleiner." Eli assured, "at worst they might think it's one of our safe houses. When they realize it's sealed up tight they’ll probably leave it be."

“Okay but what-” Alyx tried to butt in.

"I hope you’re right. I mean, I'm happy to have worked at Black Mesa, but they were no slouches back at Aperture, just a few of their inventions in the Combine hands could do our cause immeasurable harm..."

"Kleiner, please. We need to remain calm." Eli said in a tone of authority and Alyx could see Kleiner taking deep breaths, and hear as said breaths blew out his microphone.

"Yes Eli, of course you’re right, panicking will not help anyone."

"So… what I'm getting is they were a pretty big deal?" Alyx asked wanting to get the conversation back on track.

"That’s an understatement," Eli chuckled. "Aperture Science was Black Mesa's biggest competitor in the race for teleportation technology, as well as a number of other fields. Although you might better know them as the creators of the mythical Borealis." he finished with a sour look on his face.

"That's it!" Alyx nodded everything clicking into place. "So, if this place has so much stuff in it, why hasn't the resistance raided it for research? For that matter, why haven't the Combine?"

"We tried when you were young, not long after we arrived at City 17. We lost two teams of resistance fighters when they managed to dig into a secondary entrance." Eli shook his head. "We never even found out what got them… the radios just went silent. We sent a rescue team, but when they arrived the secondary passage had been thoroughly collapsed."

"Huh. Well for better or worse we have a camera on it now." Alyx said with a shrug.

"Well, it would be for the best for everyone if we just left that particular wasps' nest alone." Doctor Kleiner said with a firm nod. "Now then, back to what we were talking about. Alyx, perhaps you could give us your insight on our little teleportation problem..."

  


**Black Mesa East: Cafeteria**

Alyx stretched as the elevator crept up the floors of Black Mesa East. Talking with her father and Kleiner was fun, but it was exhausting dealing with Kleiner’s worries. He was brilliant and she loved him like family, but he was a little too much of a worry wart.

Regardless, they had made some progress that night, and had managed to come up with some experiments to try out in the coming weeks. The cafeteria was packed with people, the vortigaunts serving food by the ladleful. Alyx waited in line with everyone else, even though a few of the vortigaunts offered to get her food faster. She insisted on waiting with everyone else.

She finally got her bowl, a stew with some veggies and meat that no one looked too closely at. She looked across the room and caught sight of her squadron of soldiers, Ray had wound dressings for her arm. They all seemed in high spirits, Alyx put on a smile and approached the table.

“Hey guys,” she started and the conversation ground to a hault.

“Oh, hey Alyx,” Ray spoke up before an awkward pall could settle, “something come up with the mission?”

“Do we have another one?” Ryan asked with a tired tone in his voice

“No, I mean, no nothings wrong, I just-” Alyx looked between the faces and the carefree relief from coming home safe had washed away from them. Most of them were trying, and failing, to hide beer. Alyx swallowed hard, but didn’t let her face drop “I just, wanted to say you all did a perfect job today. Relax and have a good night, I’m gonna do some work in the workshop.” Alyx didn’t take the looks of relief personally and smiled as they said their goodbyes, heading towards one of the exits. 

As the door to the busy cafeteria closed behind her she put her back to the flat of the cold stone wall, taking a deep steady breath. She knew she couldn’t take it personally, as the daughter of the mighty Eli Vance, leader of the resistance, it was hard not to be intimidated. After collecting herself she marched off to a little forgotten part of the base. 

Her room was one of the few private rooms in Black Mesa East. It was small enough that it couldn’t be turned into dorms, but far enough out of the way that it wasn’t great for storage either. She had made it her little playhouse when she was younger and into a workshop as she got older. When she arrived, she slid the bowl onto her desk and took off her jacket and sweatshirt before kicking off her shoes. Collapsing into her desk chair she stretched out her back, she took up her bowl before looking up at her corkboard.

Stretched above her was the schematics for her next upgrade to Dog. It was the first time she was attempting a serious overhaul, not just modifying her father’s original design. 

She pushed away the worries of the day and filled her mind with the easier problems of whirring motors and robotics.

  


**Black Mesa East : Alyx’s Workshop**

Alyx looked up at the ceiling with an annoyed expression on her face. Physically she was exhausted but some part of her would not let her drift off to sleep. Her mind kept drifting back to Aperture. The Borealis had been a whispered fable among her father and his friends since she was a child. The holy grail of teleportation technology they had all been working on. Something that could give the resistance a fighting chance against the Combine. Her father had told her about it as a bedtime story. After she had told the other kids about it, it had become a popular rumer throughout the resistance. 

Even if the Borealis was more of a fable, Aperture seemed like a fascinating organization.  If they had been able to compete with her father and Kleiner then what might be hidden in that building. It could change the course of the war.

Frustrated and not able to sleep, Alyx got up and threw on her sweatshirt. She put on a pair of slippers and headed out into the facility. She went at a brisk pace  heading to her destination

Alyx walked into the dimly illuminated surveillance room. The overhead lights were all shut off while dozens of CRT televisions were dangerously stacked on top of one another. A much abused computer hummed in the corner, feeding all the TV’s their pictures. There were chairs for many people, but only two were being used at the moment. One was dozing, while the other was snoring.

During active operations they would have more people to keep track of what was going on, but the railroad wasn't making a run today so it was pretty quiet.

One of the two watchers looked over to Alyx and nearly fell out of her chair trying to get her feet off the dashboard. "Oh, Miss Vance! I - what are you doing here?" she asked trying to straighten up. The other on duty watcher kept snoozing in his chair. Chell shook her head and pulled up one of his legs, causing the slumbering sentry to tip a little too far back and fall out of his chair with a yelp. 

Ignoring the outcries of confusion, Alyx went up to the controls. "Relax Grace, just came to check the new feeds we got yesterday. And again, please call me Alyx," she began to fiddle with the old tech sifting through various feeds.

On the left, the monitors were dedicated to cameras the resistance had placed throughout the railroad, to check if they were clear of Combine interference. The center was dedicated to the area around Black Mesa East and Ravenholm, just to make sure no Combine patrol came too close to their headquarters. Only a few monitors on the far right were dedicated to cameras hijacked from the Combine.

Alyx clicked through the many streams until she came to the one she was looking for. On the screen was the Aperture Science Enrichment Center.

"Aperture Science?" questioned the female soldier.

"Yeah, Dad says that they were Black Mesa's biggest competitor before the cascade."

"Looks like a pretty normal place to me..." the woman responded

"Yeah, can't imagine it being of much use to us in any case." grumbled the other guard, nursing a bump on his head.

Alyx shrugged, "Kleiner seems to think that if the Combine get the tech trapped down there, it could doom the resistance."

"Kleiner thinks if the Combine figure out how steam engines work, the resistance will be doomed," grumped the soldier.

"Still, if  _ we  _ could just get our hands on it… Hey does this look odd to you?" Alyx pointed to the screen.

"What? I don't see..." Grace said confused.

"There's a building static… it-"

Suddenly, a bright explosive flash overpowered the camera. Once the camera started to adjust itself again, the picture showed the same building as before utterly decimated. Pieces of it’s roof had burst apart. Cars in the parking lot were crushed beneath  debris. A haze of dust hung over the site. Bits of technological wonders rained down onto the pavement, bursting apart in a horrifying waste of human progress. 

“Grace, Ted, go wake up my father and bring him here, quickly.” 

While the two soldiers scrambled out of their chairs and rushed into the hallway Alyx continued to study the image, trying to find anything salvageable in the picture. Then, among the wreckage, Alyx was able to see the silhouette of a person in the rubble.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note
> 
> And that finishes up things for the Prologue. Next chapter we'll be getting into the story proper. Since last time I tried to tell this story I ended up rushing the writing. Im gonna take a a little while and get the rough of the next three chapters before editing and posting.
> 
> Next Update - Mid(?) March


	3. Into the Fire : I

 

**Aperture Science : Testing Elevator**

Chell hummed, tapping her foot against the floor of the elevator. All around her were padded walls, meant to keep test subjects from injuring themselves. Slowly, she realized that she had been standing in the elevator for a long time, also she couldn’t remember getting on. She started to look for any crack or opening to fire a portal through, only to realize that she wasn’t holding the portal gun.

She started to feel worried as the elevator came to a stop. She turned to the door, expecting some kind of test to struggle against. The door opened to a gnarled knot of green energy obscuring everything beyond it. Chell, flabbergasted, slammed her back into the far wall of the elevator. 

From the energy a silhouette of a man took shape. A pale, almost sickly looking man in a blue suit and a black tie walked into the elevator. He didn’t do anything outright threatening but Chell could not bring herself to relax, even when he turned his back to her. The elevator closed and started again, going up.

After a few moments Chell stepped away from the wall and stood cautiously next to the man.

“Miss... Chell, do you know what my business is?” his voice was like a dozen quarreling snakes hissing. “As to not take up our already limited time, let me summarize. I deal in talent.” The elevator stopped and opened again. Inside was the ruined husk of GLaDOS’s chamber. Rubble filled in the right half of the room, with GLaDOS herself collapsed in a heap on the ground, all the advanced components that had supported her scattered. “And this place? Had so much talent, so much potential.” the man walked up to the sparking husk of GLaDOS “So much was squandered here, but I must admit a kind of… admiration for your friend’s ability to… sift the cream of the crop?” 

Chell stepped out from the elevator feeling naked without her portal gun. She looked nervously at the corpse of GLaDOS on the floor, worried it might come to life at any moment.

“Which I believe, brings us to you…” he looked at Chell with searching eyes, ”while your accomplishments are not as… grand as some of my other hires, I do see potential. And I have a nearby investment that I would like a little... insurance on?” he walked up to Chell, “If you accept, you will look after this investment until they... ripen...” his voice brokered no disagreement.

Chell, regardless, scowled in defiance.

A smug smile came over the man’s face, “if you refuse, then I will leave you to your fate, trapped in this tomb, alone, for  _ centuries _ .”

Chell felt a cold chill go down her spine, despite how surreal the whole situation was, the threat sounded very real. The thought of being trapped down here was awful to think about. The man hadn’t extended his hand so Chell just nodded once. 

“Good. A wise decision.” he walked past her again and into the elevator, “Now then, I am quite busy and have spent more than enough time here. So, I’ll leave you to your work. After all, you won’t be much use to anyone if you don’t wake up soon.” He stood in the elevator and straightened his tie, “A pleasure doing business with you. I’ll be in touch.” The elevator closed along with the only source of light.

  


**Aperture Science : Parking Lot**

Chell felt pain. Everything hurt, but most of all her head thundered. She tried to take a breath, but it felt like inhaling a fist full of sawdust. Why the hell had she gone to sleep outside?

Then her eyes opened wide as she realized,  _ she was outside. _ The sky overhead was bright blue with the occasional puffy white cloud. There were birds chirping from a nearby forest. The wreckage of Aperture Science was burning all around her! 

Wonderful.

“Thank you for assuming the party escort submission position,” a robotic voice sounded from behind her, Chell felt panic grip every weary muscle. Tight unyielding hands looped under her shoulders and started to pull, dragging her back. Back into the facility, back into the nightmare. 

Chell started to struggle. She tried to sit up, but the arms instantly tugged her back down. Instead, she twisted her whole body so that she was on her side. She caught sight of her assailant, it looked like one of the cores that she had blasted off of GLaDOS, only with two robotic arms sticking out of it. After studying the arms she noticed a flaw in their design. While they provided a good deal of torque for their size, the arms were built spindly and weak. Chell placed her right hand on the bright pink eye and gripped one of the core’s arms with her left hand.. She pushed  with her right while pulling with the left. The robot struggled to pull back, but it hadn’t been built with resistance in mind. Looked like a rushed job, really. 

“Please, resume the party escort position,” the robot requested as the motor desperately struggled against her. Then she felt the thin metal start to twist and the motor gave up the ghost, the arm going limp. Chell reversed her grips and went to work on the other arm. For a moment she thought she saw a flicker of fear in the robots eye, glancing as the other arm came undone. “Oh.. oh dear.” the core rolled on its back. “Requesting assistance, party guest uncooperative...” Chell’s triumph was short lived, she glanced around for possible reinforcements. She saw a chunk of concrete nearby. 

Perfect. 

She tried to stand, getting up into a kneeling position to push herself up. Only too late did she realize her familiar knee supports were missing. As she tried to push, a pain went up from her knee as it tried to support her full weight. Chell fell forward gasping as suffering infused her whole body. 

She felt a tear of pain well up in her eyes before she gritted her teeth, turned, and crawled towards the rock. It was the size of her fist. She crawled back and kneeled, looking down on the core. The little pink eyeball kept repeating its little plea for assistance even as Chell rose the rock above her head. 

She rained down blows on the plate of glass. The first gave only  a tiny hairline crack, the second sent splinters through the whole eyeball. “Please cease...” the robot asked. The third blow sent up sparks. “Ple-Pl-Please-” It repeated with each strike, each blow breaking the rock until she was just plunging her bare fist into circuitry. Shocks went up her arm, making it conveniently numb for striking. “Pleeea-z-z-z stoooooop” the voice fell off as its bright pink eye faded into grey. Chell pulled out her hand, which was cut and bloodied up to her elbow.

She fell back breathing shallow breaths, desperate to avoid a coughing fit from her dry throat. She looked down at her bloody arms. She ripped a portion of her tank top and wrapped it around her fist, watching as it quickly dyed red. Satisfied for the moment, she took stock of her situation.

Her first priority was getting her prosthetics working. She tentatively tried to bend her leg. No pain. That meant they just couldn’t support her body, the core of her knee replacements were still working. 

After crawling back from where the robot had dragged her, she found the bits and pieces of her replacements. The wires and bended metal that helped support the weight of her body. With laser like precision she gathered up every piece she could find among the dust and debris. Nothing essential was missing. What  _ was  _ missing could be replaced. Though, even getting those would be difficult while she had no legs.

“Chell?” the voice came from the smog and Chell looked in the direction of the voice. She saw an unshaven wild haired man in a lab coat rushing towards her. As he stumbled over the ruins in a loping run, Chell picked up an errant piece of rubble and prepared to hurl it at him. The man came to a screeching halt, holding his hands up defensively . “Whoh! Uh, wait it's me! Doug!” 

Chell didn’t relent at first, but then she noticed the mismatched eyes and other details started to become clear. He looked worse for wear, but after what she went through, she couldn’t imagine she looked much better. She slowly lowered her improvised club. She let out a sigh of relief only to end up coughing into her hand.

“Ah, dehydrated?,” Doug started to dig through his coat and pulled out an old water bottle from a pocket. She took it gratefully and drained it in moments, “I knew you could do it, I knew I made the right choice!” 

It took a few moments, but as the meaning of the words hit home, Chell’s eyes narrowed into daggers of rage. 

Doug again rose his hands in self defense, “I-okay, I know how that sounds...” Chell tilted her head in a nod, “but you- you saw her! What she could do, I needed someone who could beat those odds and… and you were my- I mean our best shot...” he said quietly. “I watched so many die. I - we  _ needed  _ to end it.” he explained, to a very much still disgruntled woman “I am sorry. I tried to help… I … I really” he started to ramble on.

Chell continued to scowl but then noticed the ropes wrapped around his chest. Looking behind him, Chell recognized the companion cube. After a few moments she remembered the scrawled graffiti obsessed with the cube. She took a closer look at Doug. He didn’t just look rough, he had  _ aged _ . By years she guessed.

Chell wasn’t sure how long she had been out for, but she doubted it was just a few weeks. She remembered how precious finding those hideouts had been. Room after room of sterile white walls and spotless tiles. The deranged scrawlings had been a comforting human connection.

Chell held up her hand to stop his rambling and smiled at the scientist. Doug took in a slow deep breath and let it out slowly. He seemed to be shaking with emotion, doing his best to hold things together. On instinct, she opened one arm in invitation. Doug leapt at the opportunity, pulling Chell in for a bone crushing hug. Chell had not been expecting quite so much  _ enthusiasm. _ Doug had never struck her as the touchy feely type. Regardless, she wrapped her other arm around him and patted his back through a few quiet sobs. 

Once he pulled away and Doug discreetly wiped his eyes on his lab coat  he smiled, “Alright, good then. Are you alright?” he asked. Chell gestured at the loose pile of her knee replacements, “Ah… yes. Well besides that, are you cut up, injured?” 

Chell made a ‘sort of’ gesture and held up her bandaged arm. He looked at her nervously.

“Chell, how tall are you?” Chell looked at him oddly, was that really important right now? “humor me...” his expression was still serious. 

Chell shrugged and opened her mouth to speak… and then realized she couldn’t. She tried to force words out, but failed. She started to grow alarmed, she thought she had been spiteing the AI by refusing to respond all this time, but had she actually forgotten? How could she forget how to speak? 

Doug, noticing the building panic, put a hand on her shoulder, “Chell? Chell it's alright, let's just… focus for now. We need to find help. We’ll just have to play charades for now”

That helped. Right, priorities. She pointed at her destroyed prothstetics and then mimicked a screwdriver.

“No, sorry, I don’t have any tools on me,.” he kneeled down and started to stuff the different parts into his pocket, “We’ll find some on the way.” Doug offered an arm down to Chell and she struggled to her feet. Her legs felt frustratingly weak and she had to put a lot of her weight on Doug. They nearly tripped a few times, but soon started to make a slow loping progress.

Behind a bit of debris Chell caught sight of the portal gun and tugged at Rattmann to turn. “Ah, yeah, that could be useful...” Chell agreed and leaned down and picked up the gun, then gestured towards one of the less crushed cars in the parking lot 

Doug paused, considering the vehicle, “do you think it’d still run after twenty years?” 

Chell shook his arm to get his attention and he looked into her wide disbelieving eyes. 

“Oh… right, yeah. You were in that relaxation vault for  _ awhile _ ...” he said vaguely as they started the long walk to the nearest town. 

  


**Black Mesa East : Surveillance Room Two**

Alyx watched as the two survivors of the cataclysmic destruction of Aperture Science walked beneath the bottom of the camera’s view and out of its sight. 

“Obviously we need to send teams out to collect the technology” said Eli.

“Do we?” Magnusson said through his monitor, “must we really collect the remnants of a second rate institution like Aperture?” 

Judith shook her head, “I must agree Eli, does Aperture really have anything worth the risk?” 

“The components alone-” Eli was cut off by Kleiner speaking from the other monitor.

“Absolutely! Aperture Science was one of the only organizations able to rival Black Mesa, and did so with a tenth of the funding.” He pointed a finger up to make the point, “We would be wise to recover what we can, perhaps our combined findings would shed some light on a method to defeat the Combine”

Eli nodded in agreement, “Aperture, for all their faults, did have some of the highest quality components on the market. The scraps would be worth more than the last decade of scavenging and smuggling we’ve survived on.”

Magnusson grumbled, “I suppose that’s worth it, so long as White Forest gets its share, we so rarely get first pick of the resistances resources.”

That was a lie Alyx thought to herself.

Eli nodded “Great, so we’ll send a few teams to collect-”

“What about the two survivors?” Alyx asked, joining the conversation for the first time since she’d explained what happened. 

“What about them?” Magnusson said with his perpetual scowl, “They’re cowards. Who have been hiding under a rock for the past two decades, while we’ve all been fighting a war for humanity.” He brushed the suggestion aside, “Let the rats scurry to a new hole. Now if we are finished here, I have important work to do.” 

“But they-” Alyx tried to argue, but Magnusson had already shut off his connection, his monitor going to static, Alyx looked to the rest of them- “they could have vital information”

“While I am sympathetic to our peers from Aperture, how would we even go about finding them?” Kleiner asked. Alyx frowned, it wouldn’t be that hard, they seemed to have been heading out down the road.

“Would they be worth the risk? This still might be an elaborate Combine plot...” Judith offered, “Besides, even if they  _ are _ scientists, they were  _ Aperture  _ Scientists.” Alyx balled her hands into a fist behind her back. People weren’t only valuable if they were scientists of some kind.

“Either way, we can’t spare the manpower right now. Every spare hand we have needs to be out gathering materials from the site.” Eli spoke solemnly.

“But-” Alyx objected, trying to set her emotions aside to find a logical argument.

Before she could find a good reason, her father approached her. “I know your first instinct is to help everyone you can, but we can’t risk the lives of half a dozen to save two.” Alyx kept frowning. “If any of our patrols catch sight of them, we’ll of course bring them in. But for now we must prioritize.” 

He patted her shoulder paternally. After a moment, she offered a weak smile of compromise, and he smiled back. “Understood.” 

Her father nodded and turned back to Judith and a pair of resistance fighters, “we need to gather that material as quickly as we can, Alyx cut the feed before it got back to the Combine, but they aren’t just going to ignore a pillar of smoke for long. Send out the word, wake up every able bodied soldier we have and get them ready, I’ll be in the briefing room.”

Everyone moved to follow orders, aside from Judith who really had no experience or interest in the militant side of the resistance cause. Alyx left her to her mutterings and went off to get her squad.

As she power walked through the hallways she tried to think of what her squad would need, but her heart wasn’t in it. Her mind kept drifting back to the two mysterious individuals who had left Aperture Science. She felt the Black Mesa alumni, and Judith, had been rather dismissive of the two’s origins. 

And even if they couldn’t, did they really have the luxury to throw away lives? They were going to need every last person to rebuild the human race after they brought down the Citadel. 

But her father was right, she couldn’t justify risking a whole squad over it either though…

She couldn’t justify a  _ whole _ squad.

She suddenly doubled her pace heading towards one of the many barracks in the facility. She burst into the room where Barry, her second in command was sluggishly getting into uniform. “Barry, gather the squad and meet in the briefing room, the big one.”

“Yeah, yeah, I-” yawn, “heard.” Barry waved, clearly needing a cup of coffee.

“Also, your leading today.”

“Sure... wait what?” he looked back at her with more alert eyes. “Why?”

“Got a solo mission, top secret.” Alyx tried to fast talk him, so she could get out quick.

“Top secret? Even to your father?” he asked and Alyx grimaced.

“Top-top secret” she confirmed with an apologetic smile. 

Barry rolled his eyes, “you know one day you’re not going to come back and it’s going to be my ass.” 

“Thanks Barry!” she smiled before rushing away into the hallway and back to her own room for her equipment. 

  


**North Mining Road : Outside of Clarksville**

Chell and Doug were making decent time down the road. Chell hated having to rely on someone else to stay mobile, but if it had to be anyone, at least it was Doug. She had also wrapped the upper half of her jumpsuit around her waist just to deal with the unseasonably warm summer.

They had planned on hitching a ride with the first friendly driver who saw them, but they had yet to see a working car go down the road. They had found more abandoned cars. The lack of cars hadn’t seemed out of place at first, the Enrichment Center had basically been the heart of employment out here, and if it had really been twenty years then it's not like they would find a lot of traffic coming out this way. 

Still there should be logging camps farther north, and there still seemed to be trees. Then again it had been twenty years, maybe they didn’t use wood anymore? Maybe they didn’t use roads either. That would explain why the highway they were on was a weed garden as vines and dandelions grew out of the many cracks in the asphalt. 

By the time the both of them had come to the main street of the town, they were drenched in sweat. Without the aid of supports or shoes, the soles of Chell’s feet hurt in ways they hadn’t since childhood.

Clarksville had never been a huge community, but there was always a kind of lively rustic feel to it. The old fifties diner was probably the only place on earth where particle physicists schmoozed with lumberjacks and truck drivers. It was a place they could all commiserate over their mutual lack of sleep. 

Chell was most struck by the utter silence of the town. Main street was as torn up as the highway had been, every building bordering the forest was overgrown or dilapidated. Those that escaped that fate looked abandoned, with paint chipped walls and rusted metal. 

“I guess the town… died?” Doug ventured. Chell nodded, but she was starting to get a bad feeling about all this. Even if the town had died, would all the roads be like this on a trucker route? “We need to find some place to rest.” he suggested and Chell managed to steer him towards an old car repair shop. They went for the garage because there was a tree growing out of the lobby. 

The garage had a car still lifted off the ground, ironically looking in better condition than the cars outside. Maybe with enough time they could cobble together a working car to get back to civilization. 

Doug with much relief deposited Chell onto one of the work stools, then nearly collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. Chell couldn’t help but feel he wouldn’t be so exhausted if he hadn’t carried the companion cube with him all this way. Chell caught his sight and nodded thanks to him. 

After taking a few more moments he stood back up, “Okay I’m going to try and find out… whatever happened here.” he looked around in a daze. “I was really hoping we could hit up the pharmacy here...” he scratched nervously at his neck. Chell put a hand on his arm, looking up at him in concern. She hadn’t considered how he had stayed medicated all these years. He shook his head, “I took my last emergency pill when you started your escape… I’m okay for now.”

Chell nodded and he turned to explore the town. Then Chell remembered something and threw a roll of electrical tape at his back to get his attention. When he turned in confusion, she mimed stuffing her hands in pockets. “Oh, right...” he came back and laid out all the bits and pieces they had recovered of her prothstetics on the work table. With that taken care off he walked out the door. When he thought Chell wouldn’t be able to hear him, Chell caught him muttering a few words to himself… or maybe to the cube?

She needed to hurry, she needed to be in a position to carry the both of them if Doug started to fall apart. She scooted over to the workbench and felt comfort at the array of tools and supplies in front of her. She sorted through the pile of scraps and mentally listed each thing that she’d need to scavenge from the auto shop. Then she cracked her knuckles and got to work.

  


**North Mining Road : Outside of Clarksville**

Alyx jogged down the road at a quick clip. She wasn’t an expert tracker, but the two hadn’t exactly left a hard path to follow. Crushed grass and snapped twigs showed they were heading straight down the road.

Alyx had managed to save some time by heading straight from the mines to the closest town to Aperture Science. Which she could already see in the distance. She stuck near the tree line beside the road in case she needed to duck into cover. She didn’t know how long she had before the first Combine came to investigate the pillar of smoke rising from Aperture. 

Alyx got to the edge of what had been Clarksville. She kept to the tree line that had encroached on the town, looking for signs the two had been through. While she was looking a figure went sprinting between two buildings. On instinct Alyx ducked behind a tree. Only when he was already out of sight did Alyx realize that it was the taller of the two survivors, the man in the lab coat. 

The second thing she noticed was how silently the man ran. He was running at a full sprint and she hadn’t realized it before she saw him. Even now she couldn’t place where in town he had gone besides ‘to the right’.

Alyx rushed to the corner of the building, and peered around it. The town looked as abandoned as it surely had for the past two decades. It was more than a bit eerie. 

Where did a scientist learn to move like that? Even their scouts weren’t that silent. Her instinct was to draw her pistol, everything about the situation was starting to feel like an ambush. Despite that, she left it holstered, they were civilians and she couldn’t come off as threatening. 

She wandered out into the street, looking around for any sign of the two people she had come out here to meet. She saw some of places where they had moved about, but no building stood out to her. She decided to take the obvious approach.

  


Chell was doing her best to choke down some packaged food. While none of it seemed to have mold, it turned out those sell by dates were there for the taste. Doug seemed to have no trouble, with over two decades more practice at surviving on garbage. For that she was both jealous and grateful.

She stood while eating, in silent celebration of fixing her prothstetics. 

“Hey is anyone out here?”

Both Chell and Doug eyes darted to the place the voice came from. They scrambled from their positions so that they couldn’t be seen from the street. They took each side of the open garage door. Chell leaned out a bit to look into the street. 

Walking down the main road was a girl, maybe a year or two younger than Chell. She was dressed in scrappy clothes, an old bomber jacket repaired with duct tape and jeans that looked well worn. She looked like a pretty cool person. If it wasn’t for the large pistol holstered in her jacket, Chell would have already been greeting her. Though that red flag was minor compared to the next one she noticed. Under the jacket she wore a sweatshirt printed with the Black Mesa logo. 

Chell pulled back and looked to Doug who had a look of paranoia burning in his eyes. He pulled away from the door and started to crouch in a fetal position “ _ Oh god. Oh god. _ ” he whispered to himself. Chell waved her arm at him, tapping on the floor to get his attention. 

For a moment he seemed to second guess her, but spoke his mind anyways, “ _ It’s a test Chell! We haven't left, this has to be some kind of holo chamber, or - or they bought the land around the Enrichment Center!! _ ” 

Chell gave him a look of doubt. Had Aperture really become so successful that they could afford this? For a test? 

Doug seemed to catch onto this doubt, “ _ come on Chell, someone wearing a Black Mesa sweatshirt? How does that make sense? Is she a groupie for a secret government research facility? On the other side of the country? AND! AND! She just happens to be the first person we meet!? _ ” 

  


Alyx could hear the whispering from where she was standing, and she was now sure the two were inside the little car shop. She couldn’t make out what they were talking about, but at least one of them didn’t seem too happy to see her. She waited out a few more hushed whispers before clearing her throat, “Um, hello? I think you guys have missed a lot and could use some help.”

There was a little more hushed whispering before the wild haired scientist poked his head out a little. “Yes, hello what do you want?” his voice was terse and short

Alyx had been hoping for a warmer welcome after hoofing it this far, but she tried to swallow her disappointment. “Well, I noticed that you two seemed to have come from Aperture Science, and thought that maybe we would be able to help each other out.”

The man rolled his eyes and stage whispered to his companion, who still hidden “This isn’t even subtle,” his voice got huffy as he focused back on Alyx, “No, under no circumstances will I, or my companion divulge details, share technology, or commiserate with any employee working for a competing research group.”

“Wha-”

“even in apparent apocalyptic conditions, where doing so may provide food or shelter in a hostile world.” Despite the absurdity of the words, it sounded like some kind of rote answer. Like the kind she gave during mission debriefings. 

“Im… I’m sorry. What are you talking about?” Alyx asked baffled.

The man seemed to grow short with impatience, “You did well android, or… simulation maybe? Performed your role admirably. Please leave.” he waved her off before ducking back behind the doorway.

What was happening? “Listen my name is Alyx Vance and I came here because you two are in danger.”

“Of course, here come the threats,” the man said mostly to himself before leaning out again. “I swear, even on the threat of death, I will not betray Aperture Science’s patents and or works in progress.”

“What are you talking about-” this was incredibly frustrating -”Aren’t you wondering why everything's like this?” she gestured widely out around her. 

“Listen I appreciate the work you put into this scenario, but the script could really use some polish.”

Alyx was starting to regret this whole venture, “What are you talking about? I’m real! This is all real! The Combine will-”

Alyx perked up, hearing something and then diving into a hole in the wall of the old diner. She knew to find cover when she heard a Combine dropship overhead. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Back. Sorry this is a little late, originally I thought I was going to clean up and cannibalize an old draft of this arc, but decided to change so much that became more of a hindrance than a help. Still I'm fairly happy with how this turned out. If you enjoyed it, please leave a comment or a kudos, both are appreciated. 
> 
> I have already written the next two chapters, and just need to edit them, if all goes to plan I will be releasing them on the following two Saturdays one on March 30th and one on April 5th. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, have a great day.


	4. Into the Fire : II

**Clarksville : Main Street**

Chell watched as things grew even more surreal outside. A large oddly shaped... airship of some kind? Came down from above. It looked like it was covered in a bug-like carapace instead of metal. She might have thought it was breathing if it wasn’t for the hover rockets attached to the back. Beneath it, it seemed be carrying a black metal compartment. The ship dropped down to ground level and the container opened up. It spilled men in full riot gear into the streets, guns drawn. 

“ _ And of course here is the supposed evil we could protect her from... _ ” Doug cynically grumped. “ _ Alright, while they’re trying to sell this, we need to figure out how to get out of here. If its a computer simulation, we should be able to push the physics engine til’ it starts breaking down.  _ ” Doug started to ignore the scene playing out, mumbling ideas of how they might clip through the floor.  

Chell looked back to the woman, who she could still see through the dilapidated wall of the diner. She was crouching for cover in the abandoned diner and had her pistol drawn, looking increasingly panicked. 

Chell glanced back at Doug, unsure of what to make of his paranoia. On the one hand he was clearly off his meds and it seemed to be getting the best of him. On the other hand, that paranoia had kept him alive for the past twenty years. And it was oddly specific that a girl looking for them seemed to be from Black Mesa, or that she was looking for them at all. Who told her about their escape?  

Maybe they shouldn’t trust her, but Chell had always been more curious than cautious. . 

  


Alyx wanted to slam her head against the diner bar. This was such a stupid plan. Now, she had to fight off an entire squadron of soldiers on her own. She had hoped civil protection would be the first ones to investigate, but these were fully armed soldiers. If the two civilians did nothing, things were not looking good for her. 

“This isn’t the drop zone...” one of the combine soldiers complained. 

The beep of a radio sounded off, “Be advised, escaped civilians were seen in this area, search, capture, or eliminate them.” a calm woman's voice intoned over the speaker. 

“Great. We’re stuck with some little lost rebels,” one of the soldiers grumbled. 

“The paperwork alone… dead or alive” another said. 

“Shut up,” one soldier called out, the leader Alyx guessed. If she killed him first it would sow a little confusion. “Stick together, sweep the buildings and capture if possible, the Citadel needs more stalker fodder.”

Alyx shivered, she had once been on a mission to save a train full of prisoners, only to find a train full of the bound and  writhing stalkers. Their skin so withered that their entire rib cage showed through. Their hands and feet chopped off and replaced by crude cybernetics. Their hissing screeches as they awoke into the nightmares their lives had become. 

The sights still haunted her. 

She heard the soft crunch of the boots approaching the diner. She muttered a curse. If they had chosen another building first, then she might have been able to cat and mouse them. She checked her gun one last time as the footfalls approached the entrance. 

Suddenly, a mass of orange energy congealed on the wall in front of her. She had no time to guess at its purpose before it changed. The wall of orange plasma split apart and on the otherside was a woman with a glowing gun in hand and a suspicious expression on her face. The woman reached through the portal grabbed Alyx by her sweatshirt and hauled her through the hole. As she rolled out on the other side she looked back only to see a blue rimmed fissure in reality close. 

Distantly, Alyx heard the front door of the diner getting kicked open with the sound of splintering wood. She looked around, seeing the delusional man from earlier on the other side of an open garage door. She had to do a double take as he seemed to be carrying a bizarre metal cube on his back. 

“What are you doing?” the man questioned, “You’re not really falling for this are you?”

The woman tapped a screwdriver to grab Alyx’s attention. She wrote in light scratches on the concrete floor, ‘ _ explain _ ’.

As her mind finally caught up, Alyx put two and two together. “You-” she looked at the strange glowing gun in Chell’s hand -“you have a teleportation device, a  _ handheld _ teleportation device.” she said, partly relieved that she hadn’t been wrong about following these two, and partly panicked because the device was within earshot of the Combine. “We need to get out of here, we need-” she started to look for an exit, but an insistent tapping drew her back to the word ‘ _ explain _ ’. 

She looked at the woman who had an uncompromising  scowl on her face. 

Alyx resisted the urge to groan, they didn’t have time for twenty questions. “I’ll answer anything if we can just get away from them fir-” she was cut off from the sound of more scratching. 

‘Summarize’

Alyx looked up at the woman, while she clearly held some of her companions suspicion, there was none of his mocking dismissal in her expression. Alyx took a short breath and nodded, “I am with the resistance. About twenty years ago there was an accident at the Black Mesa Research Facility that led to an alien invasion-”

“Oh for the love of-” the man threw up his hands. 

Alyx did her best to ignore him, -“they managed to take over the Earth, they are slowly, but surely, committing genocide against the human race. Those soldiers out there are a part of their forces.”

Alyx waited for the woman’s reaction,. She was searching Alyx’s eyes for some note of deception, but would find none. The woman seemed to deflate in exasperation before scrawling ‘Aliens? Really?’

“Yes? I really don’t have context for how crazy this sounds, it's been like this my whole life,” Alyx shrugged. 

The woman took in a deep breath. Alyx could tell she was starting to win her over.

“You can’t be buying this. Aliens? That’s pulpy sci-fi nonsense.” 

The woman looked at him for a few moments before making a screwball gesture and then shaping the letters ‘A’ and ‘I’ with her  hands.

The man rolled his eyes, “Th- That’s different!” he whispered far too loudly for Alyx’s comfort. “This is ridiculous-,” a small canister came bouncing into the room.

Alyx eyes widened, “Get down-” it was too late. The flashbang exploded and turned the world into a screeching void of white light. Alyx’s training allowed her to stumble back and behind a car for cover.  She prepared herself for the sudden fight, breathing through the terrifying blinding moments. 

As her eyes adjusted to light once more she found herself staring down the barrels of a shotgun and an smg. She looked to the side to see both the two Aperture refugees being beaten down by stun sticks. As she turned back to the two soldier she barely caught sight of the shotgun stock that knocked her out. 

  


**Apartment 24B**

A little girl sat alone in the corner of a small apartment in the sweltering summer afternoon heat. She had considered moving to get a glass of water but decided it wouldn’t be worth the effort. She could wait till her caretaker woke up.

Her kneecaps had apparently been so deformed at birth the had to be removed. As a result supporting herself for even a moment was agony. Her lower legs hung limply over the side of a office chair. It was a cheap chair the kind that wouldn't last an adult for more than a few months, but it was good enough for the time being. She could use her crutch to maneuver the chair around the apartment.

She was supposed to get a real wheelchair soon, but there was always some problem or another that pushed that day further out. It wasn’t all that bad though. The apartment was small enough that she could get around easily, and there were no stairs that walled her off from the bathroom. Not like her last home, where she had pretty much had to sit in her room all day and wait for someone to help her.

Her foster mother was better than her old foster father, too. She was kind and patient, and as long as Chell didn’t make too much noise or break anything, she never yelled. She hadn’t even hit her yet, even when she was really angry. 

Usually she would have run of the house around the afternoon, listening to the radio or watching TV, but it was her caretakers day off which meant she had to be quieter than normal. She got terrible headaches on these kinds of mornings. So, the girl sat quietly in a corner of the apartment, out of the way and reading a book.

The shrill noise of the intercom shattered the relative quiet of the apartment. The girl shuddered at the sound and looked toward the door of her caretaker. To her relief the voice was more groggy than angry. 

“Ugh… Chell, be a dear and tell them we aren’t interested… stupid salesmen...” her voice dwindled back to sleep. 

Chell bit her lip and picked up her crutch. She started to work the rubber tip on the wood floors like an oar through a river. Making her way around furniture like they were rocks in rapids.

Once she got to the door she silently thanked whoever was on the other side had not gotten impatient and pressed the buzzer again. She reached up and pressed the button “Hello? We’re not interested. Sorry.” She relayed the practiced words with confidence, assuming that would be the end of it. 

“Is this Chell?” a voice inquired on the other end.

Chell paused for a moment. Salespeople weren’t supposed to know your name. “Y-yes?” she answered.

“Hello Chell, I’m with the foster care system. Can you get Ms. Kerry please?” the voice on the other end asked politely. 

Chell bit her lip nervously before pressing the button in again. “One moment please,” she said and she carefully maneuvered her way around the dining room table again to the bedroom door. She opened the door slowly wincing as it creaked loudly. An annoyed glare met Chell from the darkness. 

“What is it?”

“Th-they say they’re from the foster care system.” she said not above a whisper. 

A slow dawning realization came over the woman’s face. Realizing this wasn’t something she could shove off, she fell out of the comforter and grabbed a bathrobe from the floor. “Chell, go buzz them in I’ll be there in a second.” 

Chell nodded and started to make her way back to the door. In her haste she almost tipped over the chair. She took a few steadying breaths as she reassured her balance. Then she pressed the intercom button. “You can come up,” she pressed the button to let them in the building and used her crutch to push herself away from the walls.

Chell returned to her corner of the room as her foster mother hurried to apply makeup to the dark rings under her eyes. She fastened her bathrobe and looked over herself in the mirror one last time before answering the knock at the door. 

“Yes hello?” she asked.

Chell could only see a man in a suit and someone very tall behind him. “Yes, Miss Kerry. I’m Mr. Smith with the Foster Care program. We’re here for the appointment?”

“What appointment?” Ms. Kerry asked with tired, skeptical eyes. 

Mr. Johnson had a look that Chell had thought of as ‘politely frustrated’. The same look a lot of adults had when she needed help with something, “We called weeks ago. Someone is interested in adopting Chell, we asked when you both would be available and you said today, the twenty-third.” Chell felt a bolt of nervousness shoot through her. She hadn’t known anything about this.

Ms. Kerry put a hand over her face, “Oh, yeah, was that this weekend? I’m sorry… busy week, come inside.” she moved aside beckoning them in. 

Chell nervously ran a hand through her hair and desperately tried to press down her skirt. As if, if she pushed it down far enough then the mangled state of her knees might be overlooked. 

Mr. Johnson walked inside and moved to the small kitchen table placing a briefcase on top of it “Now Ms. Kerry, a few details about all this...” Mr. Johnson started but Chell’s attention was quickly absorbed by the man who had been behind him in the hallway. 

He was easily the tallest person Chell had ever seen. He had to duck under the doorway to avoid bumping his head. He had big strong looking hands like a comic book hero, but with a slightly rounded belly. He wore a white doctor’s coat with white gloves over a buttoned down black shirt and tan pants. He had a scratchy looking grey beard and curious brown eyes. 

He walked into the apartment looking around as Mr. Johnson and Ms. Kerry talked. Soon his eyes fell on Chell and she sat up straight, a familiar dread washing over her. Others had come to adopt her before. Each time, she could see the disappointment in their eyes when they saw the state of her legs. They would ask about her interests, but wouldn’t really listen to her answers. Then they would leave with mumbled vague promises.

Then she would never see them again.

The man took big striding steps towards her and looked down. Slowly he kneeled down so he was somewhat on her level and smiled. “Hello there young one, are you Chell?” he asked in a deep yet gentle voice. She nodded meekly, holding tight to the crutch in her lap. “Well my name is Aaron. Aaron Legends. I’m was hoping to adopt you today. Would you like that?” he asked. Chell hesitated for a moment trying to figure out if this was some kind of trick question, but slowly nodded her head. “Wonderful!” he said with a wide grin, he pulled his right glove off, revealing a hand of shiny metal. It had a few errant wires moving in and out of it, but moved smoothly “It is very nice to meet you Chell,” he said with a smile.

Chell stared at wonder at the hand for a few moments and then up at the man. Was he born wrong too? Chell released her grip on her crutch and reached out for his hand…

  


**???**

Chell felt dazed and sore, her muscles tight and bruised. She felt her body lift slightly and then slammed down again, unmistakable as turbulence. So she was in the air. 

Her hands were constrained somehow. Not a great sign. She looked down at them, they were in… handcuffs? She guessed? They covered both hands like nubby gauntlets, no way to grab anything. They were also attached to each other like magnets, but not very strong ones? 

She tried to pull them apart, and a moment later her muscles seized up as an electric charge ran through her body. The two gauntlets were briefly attached by a chain of crackling electricity before slamming together again. 

Okay, problem for later, what else did she have? She tested her legs, they weren’t bound and she still had her prosthetics! That meant if she could get out of this thing she could safely jump to the ground. 

With that she finally looked around. She was in a very small cabin, no more than eight people could sit in here comfortably. So it was probably that dropship she had seen earlier. There were three guards near the only obvious exit. Sitting next to her was Doug, out cold and leaning into the back of the compartment on top of some kind of strongbox. 

Across from her was Alyx, the woman who had tried to get them to escape sporting a painful looking black eye. “You’re awake?” she whispered. Chell took a moment, still a little dazed from the shock. She opened her mouth to speak, but still couldn’t manage it. She frowned a little, but it wasn’t important. She nodded to Alyx. “Good, I heard them say we will pass into the city soon, we don’t have much time.”

“Hey! Quiet back there!” one of the soldiers commanded before getting back into some muttered conversation with the others.

Alyx waited a few moments before trying again. “We need to escape before-”

“Hey!” the same soldier called out, standing up and drawing the taser stick that had incapacitated Chell. “You know, the grafters prefer the comatose to work with, less screamin’.” no part of that sentence put Chell at ease. As he menaced his way down the compartment, Chell resolved herself. When he was above Alyx, ready to strike down, Chell sprang into action. She jumped onto the grunts back and looped bound wrists around his neck. 

Before Chell could really think it through, she pulled apart her hands and attempted to garote the soldier with the energy beam. Chell felt volts tear through her, but it was working! It also was a lot less potent than earlier, which meant the soldier was getting the worst of it.

Chell really didn’t have much of a plan, and hoped that Alyx had some way to capitalize on it. Alyx, threw herself into the fight, using her bound hands as blunt clubs against one of the two remaining soldiers.

Chell watched as the third soldier finally started to respond, struggling to pull the unwieldy shotgun in the cramped space off his back. She pulled one leg up against the small of her soldier’s back. She strained the electric garrote against the soldiers throat while pushing with her foot. The soldier started to scream as the cuffs intensified, sending arcs of electricity into the cabin around them and becoming more and more painful. Suddenly, the cuffs shorted out, and her foot freely propelled the ragdoll soldier into his friend, knocking the shotgun from his grasp. 

On the upside the cuffs opened and left her hands free, on the downside her entire body refused to move as a result of the intense self-tasering. 

Alyx still had her soldier down, but the third soldier Chell was getting up much faster than she was. She watched helplessly as the soldier shoved the corpse off of him and crawled for the shotgun. Then Chell fell to the deck as sudden echoing gunfire deafened her. 

When she recovered she looked up to see the third soldier had collapsed on his gun . 

Chell turned around to see Doug, he looked like he was screaming, but Chell couldn’t hear him, or anything else. He was gripping his right wrist, in clear pain. By his feet was the pistol Alyx had been carrying earlier. 

Chell turned back to Alyx who was starting to lose her fight, unable to kill the armored soldier without a proper weapon. Chell stumbled over to the front of the compartment and took hold of a lever and threw it down. Rushing wind filled the cabin as the door opened. Chell turned back just as Alyx was getting thrown off of the soldier. She reached down, took hold of the soldier’s vest and hurled him out of the main door like a sack of bricks through a window.

As she watched him fall down below the lip of the ship, Chell was struck by something truly alien. At first her eyes were on the buildings rushing below them, but then she noticed something large on the horizon. Her eyes traveled up the base of what she assumed was the wall of a military base, but then it just kept going up. Eventually she understood the full scope of what she was seeing. A massive skyscraper loomed over everything, awe inspiring in a sickening way. It dwarfed the rest of the city skyline like a mighty redwood dwarfed a rabbit in the woods.

Chell slid to her knees as she took a moment to lemant the final death of her old life.

  


Alyx stared in wonder at the woman. The brutal garroting followed by dropping a man out the ship had been amazing to witness. Alyx had some half baked plans for them to overpower the three soldiers, but she hadn’t held much hope they’d work. She would do well in any of the resistance squadrons, leading if she wanted. The woman seemed transfixed by the citadel as they approached. 

Alyx cleared her throat and made a motion with her bound hands, “little help?” The woman considered Alyx’s cuffs and went about looting the two remaining dead guards. Alyx, hoping she was looking for a key spoke up “It’s the yellow keycard, around his belt.” the woman nodded and after a few tries managed to get Alyx’s hands free. Alyx started to loot the bodies as well, retrieving a first aid kit, several clips of ammunition, and her own gun that had been lying on the ground. 

“What… is that?” the voice was from the man, Doug. Now he too was staring wide-eyed at the Citadel. 

“That’s where we’re headed, and if we get stuck in there we are as good as dead.” 

Doug scrutinized her for a moment before nodding and heading to the back of the compartment. Surprisingly, the lockbox was already picked open. Alyx guessed he had done it while pretending to be asleep for the ride, but wasn’t sure how he had managed it without anyone noticing, least of all her. Which made his priority to recreate his odd cube harness even more baffling. The two were odd, but also scary competent; it only made her more anxious to get them both to safety. 

Doug came back with the teleportation gun wielding it with his still working hand. “With this we can-” suddenly the wind picked up and the dropship shook, tipping forward. Alyx gripped onto one of the straps on the ceiling, and the woman dived into one of the benches to ground herself. Doug on the other hand, tripped forward towards the abyss. One hand was trapped in the gun, so on instinct he tried to grab onto the ledge with his injured wrist. He cried out in pain before disappearing beneath the ship, taking their one ticket out with him.

Both Alyx and the woman looked at the empty open door. “Oh, shit.” Alyx rushed to the open door, grabbing at a rail to keep from suffering the same fate. “Yeah, no fake out, he fell.” Alyx’s mind raced for some other way off the ship. A drop ship meant no parachutes, and jumping from this high would be suicide. She knew a couple of ways they could sabotage the engines, but they had no way to surviving the resulting crash. 

Before Alyx could think through any other doomed plan, she was literally swept off her feet and into a princess carry by her new friend. “What- huh?” confusion turned to sudden panic as the woman started forward and lept out of the aircraft.

Even at the young age of twenty, Alyx had more than a few regrets. Stupid mistakes that had set projects back months. Friends she’d failed to save on missions. Haircuts that sounded a lot cooler than they were in practice. But nothing compared to the raw primal regret she felt deep in her soul at this very moment. 

Rushing wind muted her scream of fear as they fell. How had she not figured out that both of them were insane? This whole solo mission was a mistake. 

As they approached a soon-to-be-blood-splattered rooftop, Alyx pulled her arms tight around the woman and buried her face in the crook of her neck. She prayed that it would at least be painless. 

Then she felt all the rushing wind… stop. Just a sudden stop in downward momentum. Nothing hurt, she didn’t even feel the jarring sensation she of jumping down a few feet. 

Tentatively, she cracked one of her eyes open to survey. They were on one of the many desolate rooftops of City 17, in between two much taller buildings. She looked up at the woman who smiled down at her. Her stormy grey-blue eyes looking relieved at their survival. Alyx was let down onto her weak knees and looked at the woman in amazement, “how…?”

She smiled and pointed down to the odd apparatus around her leg. 

“Those… okay cool, I have questions, but... Thank you,” the woman only nodded modestly before looking around for where they were to go next. Alyx wasn’t worried about that though, she was trying to figure out which way Doug had fallen. They needed to find that portal gun before the combine got a hold of it. 

Suddenly, the woman turned her head in attention, “what?” The woman put a finger to her lips and tapped her ears. Alyx stopped, she listened for a moment. There was something foreign cutting through the usual sounds of City 17. Every couple of seconds there was a thrum of something, similar to a pulse rifle’s energy blast, but with none of usual cries of horror that accompanied their use. Then just to her right she saw an orange portal appear. 

Alyx was narrowly pulled out of the way as the complimentary blue portal opened where she had just been standing, followed by the blurry figure of Doug soaring into the blue and out of the orange. He flew high enough to just barely reach the ledge of the much taller building and scrambled to get on top of it. 

It took her a few moments to come to understand how the scientist had survived a plummet from the sky. She wasn’t sure what they did at Aperture Science to create this kind of improvisation under pressure, but the resistance could take some notes. 

Doug stood tall atop the next building and looked down at them, then he looked out at the City around him. After a few moments of absorbing the changed world, he shot a portal by his feet and suddenly appeared next to them, forcing Alyx back a few steps in surprise.

“Okay, so I doubt even aperture could establish this level of fidelity in a simulation. I have questions, but for now… I’ll trust you-” he declared and the woman patted him on the shoulder in appreciation, “for now.” the woman punched him in the arm. 

Both of the Aperture refugee’s now looked at Alyx with an anxious trust that she had seen on many a civilian. She had taken that trust for granted in her career as a resistance fighter. Turns out people before the Combine invasion had higher standards for trust other than ‘human’ and ‘willing to help’. Who knew? 

As she was figuring out just where in the city they were in, she heard the unmistakable whir of the city scanners closing in. She pulled out her pistol and aimed. “Okay, first, we got to get to a safe house!” She fired shots at the city scanner causing it to  explode in a shower of sparks and metal, but several more were coming to take its place. “Follow me!” she called out and ran to the old rickety boarded up door. She gave it a solid kick, splintering the wood around the lock and breaking the door open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go! One more chapter down. I hope the shifting perspectives aren't too jarring now that they are both sharing the scene!  
> If you enjoyed reading please leave a review, and a special thanks to Enai whose comments fill me with motivation.  
> Next update should be in a weeks time which will conclude the first arc of the story. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	5. Into the Fire : III

**City 17 : Abandoned Apartment**

Alyx felt much more at home in the urban jungle of City 17, but she didn’t care much for the amount of gunfire she was receiving. Fortunately, in that regard she had a few key advantages.

With a smooth practiced motion, Alyx slid out of cover and took aim, blowing the kneecaps out from the civil protection officer. He promptly went down in a cursing writhing mess on the ground, blocking easy movement for the rest of his squad to progress down the hall.

The first advantage they had was that they were still dealing with civil protection. Their armor was thinner, their training rushed, and their organization lacking. They might draw the ire of real soldiers soon, but for the moment they were in the best bad company they could hope for.

Soon enough other Combine officers dragged the injured soldier out of the way and started to make their way down, riot shields at the ready this time. Behind the shield equipped soldiers, others took potshots at Alyx

Alyx called out across the small hallway, “flanking shot!” Her new friend nodded and shot a portal into Alyx’s room. Doug reluctantly set his cube thing against it as primitive cover and Alyx got behind it. Then the woman ducked out and fired a portal onto the ceiling above the soldiers. The opaque orange surface opened up on a sea of bobbing heads. Alyx fired down as fast as she could, not needing to aim. A clump of dead bodies were soon surrounded by live panicking ones.  

A few of the green soldiers fired into their own ranks in panic. After a few moments, a bloodied sergeant managed to direct fire up at the ceiling. Ducking beneath the storm of bullets, Alyx called out, “Close!” The portal closed leaving the soldiers to waste ammo on swiss cheesing the ceiling.

The second advantage was that they had perhaps the most potent force multiplier one could carry. The portal gun gave them the effect of a surrounding force in the close confines of an urban setting, while sowing confusion at the same time.

The same injured sergeant in the group, understanding their situation, ordered a charge down the hallway. “Reposition!” Alyx shouted out. The last two times this maneuver had involved her new friend teleporting across the hallway and then moving them to a new building entirely. This time there was a lovely twist.

Her friend ducked into the hallway and fired a portal on the floor and ceiling, forcing the first of the soldiers to fall into a ever faster loop of descent. This both bewildered and blocked the rest of the charge from advancing. Alyx’s new friend strolled across the hallway with the smuggest look of satisfaction Alyx had ever seen.

Once she was across the threshold, she fired their escape portal into the wall, which was accompanied by the sound of splintering boards and breaking bones from the hallway. Then, she fired a accompanied portal into another apartment across the street. Their escape opened up. Her friend went first followed by Doug and Alyx put.

Their third advantage was an absurd amount of mobility the gun had given them. Allowing them to hop from building to building with ease.

Alyx now had an appreciation for her father's work that had always only been theoretical. Teleportation like this on a strategic scale really _could_ turn the course of the war. Even tactically, sending an agent with a gun like this into Nova Prospekt, and then flooding the entire prison with resistance fighters could turn a suicide mission into a success

Now all she had to do was get it to the resistance before it could be taken and used to destroy the human race.

  


Chell took in a deep breath. She was doing her best to play support but she was starting to feel dizzy. She only had a couple cans of beans in the tank, and she had already done a whole lot of cardio. She didn’t want to alert anyone to it at first, but it was difficult now to actually communicate her exhaustion. Being mute was becoming increasingly inconvenient.

The three were hiding low beneath the window as one of the annoying camera drones that had caught them earlier floated past the building. Alyx let out a breath and gave a thumbs up which Chell returned.

Across the alley, in the building they had escaped, Chell could hear the Combine shouting commands to find the three of them. Chell felt satisfied at their ruse, but Alyx seemed much more on edge.

Then there was the sound of whirring and beeping. Distinct from the relatively harmless camera drones.

“Manhacks...” Alyx whispered and shot to her feet. Chell and Doug were close on her tail  as she ran with abandon into the hallway. These apartments were laid out differently. Instead of a hallway with apartments on each side, this was a leaner building with apartments on one side and a series of windows on the other, which overlooked a street.

Chell wish she could call out that wherever they were going would be faster with portals, but again. Mute. Chell looked back at Doug to act as her mouth.

He nodded in apparent understanding, “Uh, right. Manhacks?” not what she wanted. Behind them the sound of a scraping and thunks of a blade could be heard.

Alyx turned to answer, but then something came crashing through the hallway window, dividing the group. In the air, tumbling awkwardly was what looked like an inverted blender that had been taught to fly. As it reoriented itself its bright red eye turned on Chell in a beeping angry whirr of blades. Chell off guard fumbled with the stunstick at her side as the manhack drew closer. Suddenly the manhack was blasted apart in a shower of components. Chell nodded appreciatively at Alyx who had gunned down the murderbot.

“That’s a manhack...” she said, then her eyes focused on something behind them and widened in panic. “We have to go!” she turned and sprinted towards the staircase. Chell and Doug looked back seeing half a dozen manhacks were coming down the hallway. They rushed to catch up with their guide.

“They realized that this part of the city is abandoned! No reason to not swarm the area!” she called back as they hit the stairwell. For a moment Alyx was going to head down, but the sound of boots hitting the first floor directed all of them upwards. The manhacks had trouble navigating the spiral staircase and its tight turns, their progress retarded by their own bumbling flight paths.

Alyx fired a barrage of bullets at the horde of manhacks. Once Chell and Doug managed to get through she slammed the door shut. Chell was again confronted by the massive Citadel of the Combine.

Alyx backed away from the door pistol still trained, “That door won’t hold for long,” as if on cue one of the bladed bots slammed into it, splinters flying out at them.

“Where’s the hideout? I thought we were heading someplace safe!” Doug called, looking around.

“And bring all this down on them? We need to get away first!” Alyx yelled over the sound of splintering wood.

Chell looked over the streets around them, most of the buildings were clearly abandoned, while others were full on collapsed. In the distance there were tall metal walls that cut off this area of the city from everything else. She could take a wild shot at a far off building, but just waiting for the shot to connect and register would take forever. Even then, she doubted her knee replacements could handle her, Alyx, and Doug at the same time. She had already taken a gamble when she jumped out with Alyx.

Then her eyes locked on a collapsed building across the street. In the rubble she could see the gleam of a cellar door handle. Chell hefted the portal gun awkwardly to line up a shot. She fired one charge at a wall near the cellar, it burst apart into sparkles, not  wide enough to hold a portal.

She aimed at a larger wall on the second story with a bit of flooring still intact. Just as she was going to fire, her arm jerked up in surprise at the sudden sound of gunfire. One of the manhacks had finesse its way through one of the holes in the deteriorating door. Alyx had blasted it to pieces  

Chell took aim at the wall again and fired. She felt a rush of satisfaction as a blue portal formed on the wall. She turned to Doug who only nodded, clearly understanding at least some part of her plan, and she shot a portal beneath his feet. Not bothering to check if he arrived gracefully, she ran towards Alyx as the door finally shattered into splinters as a dozen manhacks poured out onto the roof, Alyx paced backwards, firing off shots. Chell fired a portal just in front of Alyx’s feet and tackled her down into it. They came out of the other side as the grinding threat of the manhacks passed overhead. Then closed the portal before any of the manhacks could find their way through.

Chell pulled Alyx back before they stumbled off of the second story floor. Once Alyx had reoriented from the sudden shift in gravity, Chell made a motion for her and Doug to stay where they were. She jumped down to the first floor and made a beeline for the cellar door. She shoved the dirt and debris from the top of it and pulled out a leadpipe that kept the door shut.

She pulled the door open and for a moment was dismayed by the wall of broken furniture and boxes haphazardly thrown into the basement. Then she saw a hole in all the debris and fired a portal through it. She turned back to the two waiting above and fired a portal into the wall next to them. Doug understood immediately and ran through the portal, Alyx followed close behind.

Then Chell flipped a switch that closed both portals. She gave a quick look back to the building they had come from. The manhacks were starting to fan out and some of the city scanners were hovering above the roof. She quickly opened the door and fired another portal in through the hole, leaving her a way back.

“Hey, are you coming down?” Alyx asked and Chell put a finger to her lips and then closed the cellar door. She replaced the old lead pipe against the muffled objections of Alyx. She started to stack the debris back over the hatch, even a little more then there had been before, tossing an old door on top to prevent anyone from seeing the handles. Finally she threw a fist full of dirt onto it for good measure. Then, hearing the approach of drones she drew her stolen stunstick and started to sprint away from the sight, leading the chase away from their hideaway.

  


Alyx sat in the basement, her leg jittering restlessly. Outside she could hear the sound of armored cars and civil protection marching about, but none had come to check the rubble they were hidden beneath.

She kept staring nervously at the oval of orange plasma on the wall. She had expected her new friend to show up just a few moments later, it had been nearly ten minutes now.

Alyx had often done something similar, taking dangerous gambles and making everyone worry about her. She had always laughed off their complaints, after all it had always worked out hadn’t it? She owed a few people some apologies.

She continued to pace nervously through the small space.

“She’s fine you know...” Doug said and Alyx looked at him suspiciously. After arriving he had dusted off an ancient looking computer and managed to boot it up. He was fiddling with a few pieces of destroyed city scanners he’d been gathering as they fled. Even as he spoke he didn’t look away from the monitor. “She’s a survivor. If Aperture couldn’t kill her, I doubt whatever is out there could.”

Alyx thought of the incredible gun the woman had and frowned, “If they catch her, that portal will lead them right to us.” she gestured at the orange pane of energy.

“I’ve put my fate in her hands before, doesn’t surprise me that I have to again.” He paused in his typing, “I _am_ a little surprised it happened again so soon.” he shook his head and went back to typing.

Alyx took stock of the man. At first she had been so frustrated by him that she had written him off. But ever since they had gotten on the same page, he had proven to be both capable and competent. He seemed to be in better shape than his sickly appearance would imply. Alyx decided if she was going to be stuck, she might as well be productive, “We uh, didn’t really have the chance to properly introduce ourselves. I’m Alyx Vance.”

Doug looked up and seemed to to assess Alyx from across the dim room. “Doug Rattmann.”

There was a pause in the conversation, Alyx decided to push forward, “So… what did you do at Aperture?” all the old timers always loved to talk about their jobs before the war. It was _usually_ a safe topic. The sudden furrowing of the man’s brow told her she’d made a misstep.

“Programmer,” he said shortly.

“Oh, that’s great, the resistance doesn’t have a lot of people who had worked directly with computers. A little too much theoretical, not enough practical expertise. What did you work on?”

“Artificial intelligence..”

“Oh, that’s really interesting, I’ve actually been dabbling in that a bit on a project.”

His eyes grew sharp looking up at Alyx intently, “Robotics?”

Well it caught his attention, “Yeah, it actually has a crude learning algorithm to help-”

“What do you mean by ‘learning’?” Doug got up and marched towards Alyx, “can it think for itself?”

Alyx grew apprehensive, but pushed on. “Crudely, yes. It can solve problems if given the time, it’s not very good but-”

“You have to destroy it!” his eyes were filled with fiery passion.

“What? No!” Alyx replied flatly, annoyed and then wary of the man.

He put his hands on her shoulders, “You can’t trust A.I., you need to destroy it.” He saw the hesitation in her eyes, “You can’t dumb it down, you can’t bend it to a noble end,” his voice rose as his eyes grew frantic.

“Quiet, we’re supposed to be hiding-” this was exactly how they got caught last time!

“It will lie, trick, and kill us all!” his voice rose to a ferver and Alyx became very aware of the pistol at her side.

Then the sound of whooshing air and nearby gunfire became very audible, both of them looked to the portal. The orange pane had expanded into an orange ring, looking up out from some alleyway. Alyx’s new friend fell through, collapsing on the floor and closing it behind her. She groaned on the floor, clutching at a large open gash on one arm.

Doug let go of Alyx and rushed to the woman’s side.

Alyx shook off the nerves and tension and followed after him, worried for her new brave friend.

Doug got her to stop holding the wound and Alyx winced, that was definitely Manhack work. No bone showing, so it wasn’t permanent.

“We need bandages and something to sanitize the wound.” Doug looked around frantically, sprinting to one of the many crates around the room looking for supplies. Alyx calmly took out a small medkit she had looted from the dropship.

“Here, let me see your arm,” Alyx ordered already in the process of grabbing her wrist. Alyx popped the cap off a large green vial, and let it ooze out onto the wound. She used her fingers to work it all the way in. Before she was even finished the blood was clotting and scar tissue was rapidly growing over it. The muscle closed and then shut on its own She took one of the bandages and put it over the wound, it would keep the medi-gel in place while it finished its work. With some left over she started to work it into the burn marks around her wrists. “You’ve had a real rough go of it, huh?” the woman let out a hum of agreement, clearing enjoying the painkillers baked into medigel.

Despite all the misery the Combine had caused, if any good came out of their reign, it was the existence of medi-gel. She couldn’t imagine having to wait weeks to heal every bullet wound.

“There we go,” Alyx said proudly, inspecting her work.

Her friend looked down at her arm and moved it in surprise as there was no pain. She smiled up at Alyx and patted her on the shoulder in appreciation. Alyx buzzed with happiness and relief. She was glad her friend wasn’t more seriously hurt. “So, you led them away from here?” her friend gave a thumbs up in response.

“Okay I found a old bottle of vodka and some old clothes to-” Doug came back from his scavenging with rags and a bottle in hand. When he saw the patch on her arm he dropped the rags and took the bottle back to ancient computer.

“We’ll probably need to lay low for a few hours, they’ll start widening the search and thin out in this area.”

Her friend nodded and relaxed her back into the wooden walls of the basement. Before Alyx could say anything else, she had slumped into unconsciousness. Alyx was impressed by her ability to fall asleep so easily.

With nothing to do for a time but wait, Alyx sat on the ground next to her. As the minutes went by Alyx found her eyes growing heavy. She hadn’t gotten sleep since before her squad had gone on that mission yesterday. She tried to stay awake, to keep an eye on Doug if nothing else, but inch by inch she lost the fight for consciousness as well.

  


Chell woke up, hoping that she was back in a world that made sense. Instead she was in the basement of a ruined building with an aching back from sleeping upright. She tried to shake the sleepiness off but found a heavy weight against her shoulder. She focused her weary eyes to find Alyx drowsing against her. Chell was struck for a moment by how she looked. Since they met , Alyx had been an all business badass gunslinger. At the moment though she looked… soft.

Chell considered bumping her awake, but didn’t really feel up to it. She’d rather have a clear minded guide for the next leg of the trip, Alyx could nap a little longer.

Chell saw Doug in one corner of the room, working on something. Had he gotten any sleep?

Maybe they could make plans while they waited for Alyx to wake up. She opened her mouth to speak only to find that she still couldn’t. A wave of frustration and rage crashed over her. She briefly felt tears start to form before she pounded her thigh in frustration. She immediately regretted it as the blow reminded the rest of her body of her aches and pains. She shuddered as she gritted and bore the pain, jostling Alyx in the process.

Alyx awoke with a drowsy groan. She quickly realized she was resting against Chell and jumped away. “Oh, sorry. Looks like I took a little nap.” She laughed nervously as she scooted away. Chell shrugged off the apology. It seemed like a petty concern given the circumstances.

The two of them stood up and Alyx seemed to do a routine pat down, tapping at her holster and a couple of her pockets on her jacket and pants. Her hand grazed a part of her belt and froze, rechecking everything rapidly, “shit, I forgot to get my emp tool!”

“Is that what this’s?” Doug asked, holding up something that looked like a high tech remote control. It was torn apart with its wires exposed.

Alyx stared dumbfounded, “why do you have that?” she asked accusingly

“I took it from the ship before I tumbled out.” he answered, going back to fiddling with the device. After a pause he turned to the companion cube, “I know, it’s fascinating right?”

Alyx looked to Chell with worry. Chell just shrugged her shoulders, she was just happy  Doug was still coherent. Alyx walked over to him, looking over his shoulder, “What are you doing to it?” She asked with worry.

“Well.” he started in his lecturing voice, “I figure one big problem are those floating cameras right? If they take our picture they know where we are, and if we destroy them I bet they send some kind of signal out?” he asked waiting for an answer.

“The scanners, and yeah. It’s why we had to get out of their line of sight.”

“But they don’t bother the police, right?” Doug asked.

“... yes.” Alyx agreed, clearly thinking through it herself.

“I’ve programming a code into the emp blast, if it works, the rebooted drone will treat everyone like soldiers and ignore us,” Doug explained proudly, gesturing to the antique screen. The monitor was filled with lines and lines of code that for all Chell knew were gibberish.

“That-!” Alyx started, ready to argue, but then took a closer look at the code on the screen, “-might work actually....” Alyx seemed to regard Doug in a new light. “We’ll need to be careful, but this could be a huge help.” Doug handed the device back to Alyx who looked at it curiously.

Chell smiled, hoping that this went some way to smooth things over. They needed to get him medicine, and that would be all the harder if their one connection to this organization hated him.

“It sounds like its quieted down out there. With the portal gun we should be able to make it to Kleiner's before dawn.” Chell stretched, shaking out the weariness from her muscles.

  


The reprogrammed emp tool worked like a charm. Alyx guessed they had set a new record for traversing City 17, between the portal gun and being able to disarm the City Scanners it was a breeze.

Still, Alyx breathed a sigh of relief as they rushed into the abandoned building and closed the door behind them. The night had still been fretful, with close calls and near discoveries. But thanks to quick thinking they had managed to slip through.

Both of her companions, but especially Doug looked exhausted. “Almost there,” she promised. She led them through the gauntlet of security measures they had in place to keep Kleiner hidden. She loved the man like family, but he was a paranoid one and insisted on as many levels of security as they could manage.

Eventually they got to the two water bottle machines that served as the last line of defence against discovery. She put in the quarter and punched in the code without fanfare. The empty facade of the machine opened to reveal the secret passage into the lab. “Welcome to the resistance.” Alyx said flashing a smile before walking in.

The lab looked the same as ever. A few of Kleiner's prototypes were scattered across two tables and his massive computer setup. Sitting at his desk was her Uncle Kleiner. She imagined that was her fault. Her father would have had half the resistance looking for her. She walked around the table to gently wake him up.

With a groan the scientist awoke, “Hm… oh, who- Alyx?” He scrambled to grab his glasses. “That _is_ you. Oh thank god you are safe! You’ve been worrying everyone sick. Your father-” he stopped mid sentence as he finally noticed the two other people in the room. “Ah, hello there.” he adjusted his glasses, “oh my, you are those two from Aperture Science!”

Alyx nodded before gesturing to Kleiner, “guys, this is Issac Kleiner, one of the Resistance’s top researchers.”

The woman and Doug reached out and shook his hand. After a few moments, Chell looked at Doug and then rapped her knuckles against his chest. “What? Oh right. My name is Doug Rattmann and-”  he was interrupted when the woman hit him again, shaking her head. “What?”

The woman mimed a motion that looked like she was emptying something into her hand and then throwing it into her mouth.

The wince from Doug’s face made it clear that he understood, then he turned to listen to someone who wasn’t there. Ultimately he sighed and looked back at Alyx and Kleiner, “It’s not a priority -” the woman gave him the stink eye, “but I have schizophrenia... and getting medicine sooner rather than later would be for the best.”

Alyx’s eyes widened with surprise. It certainly did explain a few things in retrospect. She had seen some people with the condition unmedicated. If Doug had been struggling with it this whole time, his performance was even more impressive.

“And you went sneaking about City 17? That must have been awful!” Kleiner gestured for Doug to follow him, “Come, I've got a synthesizer for my own medication downstairs.” He reached down for the corner of the carpet around his desk. Folding up a corner revealed a trapdoor.

Doug looked nervously at Chell who patted his shoulder reassuringly. He followed after Kleiner down the ladder, leaving Alyx alone with her new friend.

Alyx thought about what to say, everything had been moving so fast that they hadn’t gotten to know much of each other. Despite that, she did feel a connection to the woman. She really wanted to befriend her before she learned about her father’s position and distanced herself. She loved her father and his friends, but she wanted to have someone who didn’t know her as ‘the daughter of Eli Vance’.

The main problem was the language barrier.

The woman didn’t seem to be deaf, which meant she was probably mute. Alyx knew a little sign language, they used it on missions, but not enough for a full conversation.

As Alyx considered different ways to communicate she noticed something off about her friend.

The woman was still on edge. Her muscles were coiled tight. She tapped her foot nervously. And eyes assessed the room the way a soldier did a battlefield. At one point her eyes fell across the boarded up windows and narrowed in suspicion.

Did she think they were still in danger?

Alyx walked up behind her, “Hey, uh-” the woman whirled around, for a moment on the defensive, ready to fight. As she realized nothing was wrong, she let out a sigh and scowled to the side. Her cheeks were flushed in embarrassed frustration. Alyx had thought the woman had nerves of steel, but she supposed even steel wool came undone if you pulled it enough. She put on a smile, “Hey, so I just wanted to say thanks.” The woman rose a brow to her, “Usually when I’m dealing with civilians, I’m the one doin’ the saving, but you saved our collective ass a half dozen times, so I just wanted to say thanks.” Alyx hesitated for a moment but then put her hand on the others shoulder, “but we’re safe for the moment. You made it...”

The woman didn’t react at first, but ended up nodding and smiling back. Her shoulders slowly slumped and she uncoiled, as if a great burden had been lifted from her. .

Alyx went over to the desk for scrap paper and a pen, “That said, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot,” she held out a stained yellow pad and a ballpoint pen, “names Alyx Vance, pleasure’t meet ya.”

The woman took the pad and placed it on the desk. There was a pause as she started to tap the paper, her face contorted into a frown. Alyx worried she had made a misstep in assuming she could read and write.

“Sh-” there was a short stutter of voice. Alyx wanted to ask if something was wrong, but she seemed to be working through something. She gripped the pen tight in her hand as she sounded out the words, “Sh-ell. M-my name’s- Chell” she slowly sounded out with an odd mixture of triumph and annoyance on her face.

“So your not mute then, Chell?” Alyx tested the name, first new name she’s heard in a while. It was satisfying to sound out.

“N-not use-usesu-” she clenched her teeth, “n-normally. D-don’t st-stutter either.”

“Well, welcome to the resistance Chell. I don’t know what benefits you had at Aperture, but I hope we can make you comfortable.”

A wry smile came onto Chell’s face, “Bars se-set pretty low...”

“Um, excuse me,” Kleiner’s hesitant voice called from the trapdoor. “Could I get some help?”

Chell looked concerned and the two of them quickly headed down the hatch. Dr. Kleiner’s living space was a modest accommodations of a one bedroom apartment. In the kitchen area, next to a toaster and an electric teapot was a pill synthesizer. Leaning against the  wall next to the counter was an unconscious Doug

“One minute I was explaining the wonders of the synthesizer, and the next he was out cold” Kleiner looked worriedly at the man.

“Huh, guess he really just worked through the afternoon when we rested.” Alyx observed “Hasn’t gotten good a sleep in over a day or so...”

Chell walked up, putting a hand on his shoulder “m-much longer I thi-think” Alyx watched in shock as Chell gingerly learned the six foot man into a fireman’s carry. He grumbled a bit at the motion, but didn’t wake “m-my turn” she whispered to him before turning to Kleiner, “Do you ha-ave a spare bed?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is two weeks late. I kept getting hung up on the ending scene and rewriting it. Then my sleep schedule got wrecked and I couldn't focus on editing whenever I tried.
> 
> BUT ITS FINALLY DONE! WOO!
> 
> So this is the end of the first real arc of the story. Which means that I will again be retreating to write up the next leg of the story. That will probably be in the next month or so. Before then I hope to have a shorter intermission to transition us to the next arc (aka, skillfully skip over water hazard)
> 
> Thanks for the support from everyone who left Kudos and Enai again for the comment. Knowing there are those interested in the story is always encouraging.


End file.
